


Clockwork: Volume One

by TheRedeemer1995



Series: Clockwork [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Arkos (RWBY) - Freeform, Assimilation Backfire, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Badass Blake Belladonna, Badass Jaune Arc, Badass Lie Ren, Badass Nora Valkyrie, Badass Oscar Pine, Badass Pyrrha Nikos, Badass Ruby Rose (RWBY), Badass Team JNPR, Badass Team RWBY, Badass Weiss Schnee, Badass Yang Xiao Long, Beacon Academy, But I Am Working On It As Quickly As I Can, Canon-Typical Violence, Cover Art, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on deviantArt, Embedded Images, Embedded Videos, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Fall of Beacon (RWBY), Grimm Roman Torchwick, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Merlot Industries (RWBY), Oscar Pine Merged With Ozpin, Oscar Pine Needs a Hug, Ozpin Is Always Watching, Past Blake Belladonna/Adam Taurus, Pyrrha Nikos Lives, Pyrrha Nikos Survives The Fall of Beacon, RWBY: Grimm Eclipse, Renora (RWBY), Resurrective Time Travel, Rewriting History, Roman Torchwick Lives, Rose Garden (RWBY), Ruby Rose (RWBY) Needs a Hug, Slow To Update, Spoilers, Spoilers: RWBY, Team Bonding, Team JNPR Needs A Hug, Team RWBY Needs A Hug, Team as Family, The Author Regrets Nothing, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Time Travel Pairings, Time Travelers Are Always One Step Ahead, Time Traveling Matchmaker, Volume 1 (RWBY), Volume 2 (RWBY), Volume 3 (RWBY), You Can't Play Chess With Checkers Players
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:01:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22403800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRedeemer1995/pseuds/TheRedeemer1995
Summary: Oscar Pine used to be nothing more than a farmhand in Mistral, yearning for adventure and the chance to become something more than what he was. These dreams became a terrifying and exhilerating reality when an ancient warrior moved into his head. Now, having been sent back in time to the night where Ozpin and Ruby Rose first met, he finds himself enrolled as a student at Beacon Academy, where he becomes the fifth member of Team RWBY, or rather, Team RWBYS. Armed with his own upgraded version of the Long Memory, along with Ozpin’s own memories, abilities, and immense, self-sustaining magical powers, Oscar stands ready to rewrite history, and lead the fight for a better future for the world of Remnant, one without the threat of Salem and the Grimm looming over them, and one where his friends, as well as himself and the one he loves the most can live their lives in peace, their happily ever afters secured forevermore.If only it was that simple…
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Adam Taurus, Blake Belladonna/Sun Wukong, Jaune Arc/Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Oscar Pine (RWBY)/Ruby Rose (RWBY), Oscar Pine/Ruby Rose, Ruby Rose (RWBY)/Oscar Pine (RWBY), Ruby Rose/Oscar Pine, Weiss Schnee/Neptune Vasilias
Series: Clockwork [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1612381
Comments: 33
Kudos: 154





	1. I. My Name Is Oscar Pine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, prospective readers, and welcome to my first straight-up RWBY story. You know, I’ve been entertaining the idea of doing a time travel story, but it’s always Ruby or Jaune who gets to pull a Barry Allen and screw up the timeline, be it for the better or for the worse, and while Oscar has been used in these time travel stories multiple times, I feel that he is the least used character who would work for something like this, and honestly, I find the lack of Oscar Pine fanfiction disturbing. Now then, details. What you need to know is that, much like Red Like Roses, Blue Like Violets, this story will consist of Volumes One, Two, Three, and the events of Grimm Eclipse, while the second consists of Volumes Four, Five, and Six, and so on. Additionally, Oscar is fifteen in this fanfic, the same age as Ruby, and as such, he has hit a pretty decent growth spurt, plus he’s far, FAR, more confident than he was in his earlier appearances. And yes, Rose Garden is hereby confirmed for this project. Also, Oscar will be assigned to Team RWBY, or rather, Team RWBYS, which takes the second letter of Oscar’s first name to spell. I mean, Ozpin’s been Headmaster of Beacon Academy for a really long time, you’d think he’d have had a couple of occasions where the first letters of either someone’s first name or their last name didn’t really make a word when combined with their teammates, so he’d have had to have come up with some kind of work around, and on top of that, I’m sure he’s had an occasion or two where he’s had to put five-man teams together. As far as Oscar’s Semblance goes, I’m just gonna stick with the fan favorite and give him the power to control and manipulate time itself, an ability I have dubbed “Clockwork,” hence the title of the series. Anyways, I believe that I have babbled on for long enough, so let us start the game!

_Chapter I_

_My Name Is Oscar Pine_

_So, this is Vale…_

Walking up one of the main drags was a young man of around the age of fifteen years old. He had tanned skin and what seemed to be a faint perpetual blush and freckles on his cheeks, and a mop of black hair atop his head. He was clad in an olive coat with a black popped collar, dark red shoulder pads and at least three belts to match with a white collared shirt underneath, clean bandages wrapped around his neck, despite the fact that there was no real need for them, a pair of orange gloves, black pants, and red boots with orange at the tips. As he walked, he held a sleek black cane in his hand that appeared to have been modified and upgraded using Atlas technology. While he didn’t actually _need_ the cane to walk, he did so anyways as more of a fashion thing.

_Seems like a nice place to call home… then again, I’m sure I’ve already called it home on more than one occasion, back when I was Ozma, or rather, Ozpin,_ thought Oscar Pine as he walked through the streets of Vale, looking around at all the sights.

It had been something of a surprise, waking up in an alleyway here in Vale, especially after what had happened before then, during the final confrontation with Salem. He could still remember everything as clear as day. Not only could he recall all of his own memories, but he could also clearly recall all of the other memories that once belonged to the ancient warrior King of Vale, the man known as Ozma, but in this day and age, the ancient and powerful warrior was known to the world of Remnant as the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, Ozpin.

He still remembered how the bodies of those Ozpin had once called his allies fell to the ground, fighting to the bitter end. He remembered how Cinder Fall had killed Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, Yang Xiao Long, and Blake Belladonna before Jaune Arc had struck her down once and for all at the cost of his own life, and how his last words had been the name of the woman he loved, whom he had always loved: Pyrrha.

Then came the final battle against Salem herself. Weiss Schnee was the first of the three of them to fall in the final battle, but the newest Winter Maiden had put up a fight that would’ve made her older sister and immediate predecessor as the Winter Maiden proud. 

As he and Ruby, who now had the powers of all four Maidens, fought against Salem, the assimilation of his soul with Ozma’s was nearly complete, and it probably would have had a dying Salem not struck Ruby down. The sight of seeing the Silver-Eyed warrior whom he had fallen in love with being struck down had done something to Oscar and Ozpin both, causing the assimilation to somehow backfire, thus resulting in Ozma’s soul merging and assimilating with his own, rather than the other way around. In a blind rage, Oscar had launched himself at Salem, whaling on her with _The Long Memory._ However, his rage had blinded him to the fact that Salem was charging up a final attack. As Salem dissipated like every other Grimm, Oscar had crawled his way over to the dying Ruby. After one last kiss, he had fallen asleep on her chest, holding her close. And then, he had woken up in that alleyway, a boy of fifteen once again, with a voice that he had somehow known to be the God of Light, whispering in his ear, or perhaps in his mind, that he had taken pity on him for having been drawn into the war via being Ozma’s new host, and had given him a chance to set things right and change the course of the future, as the new Wizard of Remnant.

After procuring a hotel room for himself and a place to store the belongings he had found with him, which included enough lien to buyout virtually every single major corporation on the face of Remnant, from Scrier Technologies, the company behind the invention of the Scroll and other similar technologies that it was the sole producer and distributor of, to the Schnee Dust Company. Also found among these items was a variety of clothing, including an impressive suit that wouldn’t look out of place on royalty, Oscar had discovered that he had been sent back in time. Indeed, the night upon which the broken moon of Remnant shone was in fact the night where Ozpin had met Ruby Rose for the first time after she had foiled Roman Torchwick’s robbery, with Glynda Goodwitch’s help, of course.

As Oscar continued to walk down the street, he caught sight of five individuals that he immediately recognized from Ozpin’s memories, namely one in particular, a ginger haired man in a white suit with a black bowler cap.

_Well, then. I suppose it’s time I introduced myself,_ thought Oscar as he began to discreetly follow the group of men to their destination.

_Meanwhile..._

Marching through one of Vale’s main drags was a group of five people. Four of them wore identical outfits consisting of sleek black suits with a black undershirt, a red tie, red shades, black dress shoes, and black leather gloves, while the fifth member of the group, quite obviously their leader, was smoking a cigar and had ginger hair that covered his right eye and wore a white suit with a popped collar that had a red interior with a black undershirt and a gray ascot around his neck. The man also wore black gloves that reached up to his forearms, a pair of black dress pants, and black dress shoes. With the man were two of his most prized possessions: a sleek black bowler cap with a red stripe near the brim and a black feather poking up out of the side. The second item was a white and gray cane with a bit of red here and there, known as the _Melodic Cudgel._

As he looked around at all the people grabbing their children, holding them close as they retreated into the safety of their homes, Roman Torchwick couldn’t help but give a self-satisfied smirk. Although he wasn’t exactly the biggest, respected, or even feared name in Vale’s criminal underworld, it did give the accomplished thief, liar, cheater, ladykiller, and all around criminal mastermind some measure of pride that normal people knew that if he was around, someone was up to no good, and that it was in their best interest to get the hell out of his way.

As Roman and his men swaggered their way up the street, their destination quickly came into sight. It was a Dust shop called _From Dust ‘til Dawn._ And from the looks of things, it was still open for business despite the time of night it was.

_About bloody time we found one,_ thought Roman as he and his men approached the door to the shop. When it came to robbing a store of any kind, it was preferable for the store to be close to closing up for the night. That way, there would be fewer, if any, people around and thus, a less likely chance of there being a cop, or worse, a huntsman snooping around. Plus, you wouldn’t need to worry about security systems or alarms like you would if you tried to break into a store while it was closed.

Roman could easily recall the number of times he had been arrested by the cops back when he was still refining his technique. Oddly enough, and assuming huntsmen weren’t involved, he always seemed to be able to talk, bribe, or if the occasion called for it, fight his way out of any situation, and escape any prison cell with effortless ease. Part of him wondered if that, somehow, was his Semblance: the ability to escape any situation or any confinement. Although, he wasn’t entirely certain. After all, it was because Roman had talked his way out of a sticky situation that he was even robbing the Dust shop in front of him to begin with, and how he had been roped into working with his new employer and her allies. Although, he had to admit, his new boss was _smokin’ hot…_ in more ways than one. However, she was the black widow sort, he could tell. A siren through and through. She was the kind of woman who had a voice that would make you melt like ice into her hands, before she would kill you, making it sexy while she did it. Roman had known from the first moment he laid his eyes on her that she would be the death of him, one way or another.

His new co-workers, however… well, he really, really wanted to kill them, but sadly that would probably get himself and Neo both killed, be it because of their boss or another one of her associates. Honestly, dying in a hail of gunfire in some glorious last stand or being killed by either a huntsman or the hitman of an employer he had managed to piss off somehow weren’t too far from how he’d always expected to shuffle off this mortal coil. But, Neo, his adopted daughter, his little girl, his legacy and heiress in this life of crime the two of them both lived… if anything happened to her because of him, he would never be able to live with himself.

Roman opened the door leading into the Dust shop, with his men filing in after him. As he expected, the shop appeared to be empty, apart from an eldery storekeeper who seemed as though he had started to suspect what was about to go down. Roman took the cigar from his mouth before he spoke.

“Do you have _any_ idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?” Roman asked the shopkeeper as he tapped the ashes of his cigar onto the glass display case between himself and the shopkeeper, while one of his henchmen in black aimed what seemed to be a blaster pistol of some sort at the shopkeeper, who quickly put up his hands in surrender.

“Please! Take my lien and leave!” the shopkeeper begged of the men who were robbing his store.

“Shh, shh, shh, shh,” Roman shushed the frightened old man in front of him. “Calm down, we’re not here for your money,” he said before turning to his men. “Grab the Dust.”

With a nod, one of the men produced a black case that contained several canisters of some kind. Two of the other men each grabbed one of the canisters and proceeded to walk over to a group of dispensers that held various types of Dust that had been ground into a fine powder, and attached their canisters to the dispensers and began filling them with Dust, while another thug produced another, empty black case, while the fourth thug continued to hold the storekeeper at gunpoint.

“Crystals.,” the thug holding the case demanded, his tone of voice suggesting that he had done this almost a thousand times before. “Burn, uncut.”

As the shopkeeper complied with the thug’s demands, one of his cohorts was on his way to fill up another canister of Dust, only to stop as the sound of rock music reached his ears. Turning towards the source of the music, the thug saw what looked like a kid clad in a red hooded cloak of some kind with their back turned to him, reading a magazine by the looks of it.

The thug heaved an irritated sigh of frustration as he turned to face the kid. “All right, kid, put your hands where I can see ‘em,” the thug demanded as he drew his weapon, a scimitar with a red blade, and pointed it at the hooded kid, only to not get so much as a response from the kid, let alone compliance, much to his irritation.

“Hey, I said hands in the air!” the thug said as he started to make his way over towards the kid. When he reached the kid, he grabbed them and turned them around, asking “You got a death wish or somethin’?”

As the kid was turned around, their hood fell off, revealing them to be a young girl of around fifteen with red and black hair wearing a black and red blouse with a matching black and red combat skirt held up by a belt that had a silver rose-shaped clasp, black leggings, black and red boots, and a pair of large headphones with a red rose emblem on either side that were blasting music into her ears at full volume, which explained why the thug couldn’t get a response out of her.

Now that the thug had her full attention, he motioned for her the girl to take off her headphones, which she did.

“Yes?” the girl, Ruby Rose, asked the thug before her with a neutral expression on her face.

“I said, put your hands in the air, now!” the thug demanded of the girl before him, causing her face to fall.

“Are you… robbing me?” Ruby asked the thug before her, raising her eyebrow at the thug, her tone of voice held a hint of _are you kidding me?_

“Yes!” the thug said, now starting to get thoroughly irritated with the little brat standing in front of him.

“Ahh…” Ruby said as a smile began to cross her face, Whoever this guy was, he was about to have a bad night.

Before the thug could do anything, Ruby let out a battle cry and kicked the goon across the store just in time for Roman, who was examining a Fire Dust crystal, and the other flunkies to catch sight of the man crash into the front wall of the building, putting him out of commission for the time being. Heaving a sigh, Roman motioned for one of the other thugs to go and deal with the annoyance that had sprung up.

The thug ran up to Ruby and aimed his gun at her. “Freeze!” he shouted, right before he was drop kicked by Ruby, sending both herself and the thug sailing through the window. As the thug tumbled to the ground, out of commission for the time being. 

As Roman and his other three flunkies looked through the shattered window to see what they were up against, Ruby slid to a stop, pulling a large red object from her back, which quickly unfolded into a massive mechanical scythe-high powered sniper rifle hybrid known as _Crescent Rose_ , with which she stopped to make a heroic pose with, smirking back at the mobsters before twirling her scythe, the tip of which smashed part of the pavement when it hit, before pausing her music player in order to better focus on the fight.

_What in the…?_ thought Roman, looking at the little girl who had just gotten in the way of his heist. After a moment of silence, Roman spoke up. “Ooookayyyy… get her!”

Before the thugs could so much as lean towards the girl in the red hood, a green energy bolt all but exploded on the ground before them, causing the criminals and Ruby to jump back in surprise and fright.

“I think you mean, ‘get them.’”

Ruby, Roman, and the white suited criminal’s gang of thugs turned towards the source of the newest arrival on the scene, which was revealed to be a young man of around fifteen that neither Ruby nor even Roman had ever seen before in their entire lives. 

The mysterious new arrival had tanned skin and what seemed to be a faint perpetual blush and freckles on his cheeks, and a mop of black hair atop his head. He was clad in an olive coat with a black popped collar, dark red shoulder pads and at least three belts to match with a white collared shirt underneath, bandages wrapped around his neck, a pair of orange gloves, black pants, and red boots with orange at the tips, and was currently twirling a sleek black cane that looked as though it had been modified and upgraded using Atlas technology.

As the mysterious boy walked over to stand by Ruby, twirling the sleek black cane that he held in his hand, the red hooded girl had to admit, this boy was kinda cute… or would that be handsome? Ugh, whatever it was, it was drawing her in like a moth to the flame. Was this what love at first sight felt like? 

Ruby shook her head before returning her focus to the white suited criminal and his flunkies. While she had devoted her life to follow in her parents’ footsteps to become a Huntress as they sounded far cooler and romantic than the police force, and the fact that they were just like the heroes and heroines in the stories that her mother, father, and older sister had read to her before bed, she couldn’t afford to get distracted by tall, green, and handsome when they were about to face off against a gangster and his thugs. And besides, if Yang were here, she would _never_ let this go.

Roman, for his part, had to admit that this new irritation who had decided to get in the way of his plans had a certain charm to him. While Green may not have been as stylishly dressed as he was, the outfit he wore combined with the cane that he was currently twirling, did give off a certain something that Roman couldn’t help but be impressed by, and the look on his face and within his eyes radiated confidence and skill.

Regardless, however, both Red and Green had decided to get in the way of his plans, and unfortunately, they had to pay the price for their interference. Not that it was anything personal, of course, but a job was still a job.

The boy, Oscar Pine, meanwhile, had to admit that it felt good to see and fight side-by-side with Ruby again. And this time, Ozpin wasn’t merging his soul together with his own, so if something more than just friends came from their reunion in this timeline, it was a safe bet that it would last a lifetime. But, he knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up. After all, Ruby could very well fall for his younger self, assuming that he hadn’t replaced his younger self by being here, and of course, his thirteen-year old counterpart was still snug in his bed back on Aunt Em’s farm in Mistral.

Roman seemed to have recovered from the shock and surprise of Oscar’s arrival, because the next thing out of his mouth was “Well, you heard the man. Get them!”

As the four black suited thugs began to rush the two teenagers, Oscar looked at his red-clad ally with a meaningful look on his face as he entered into his combat starting stance. “I’ll take two, you take two,” he said.

“Two each? Got it,” Ruby said with a nod as she and Oscar made their way towards the thugs that were heading towards them, their red bladed scimitars drawn and ready for some bloodshed.

Oscar blocked a swing from one of his opponents before punching him in the stomach with his free hand, stunning his foe long enough for him to deflect a swing from his other opponent before promptly hitting the man in the nuts with his cane, causing the man to double over in pain before Oscar delivered a roundhouse kick that sent the man flying several feet away. With a press of a button on his cane, a grapple claw shot out from the top of the weapon and caught the flying thug in the chest.

“Get down!” Oscar shouted before swinging his cane, and by extension, the thug, over his head, slamming the hired goon into the ground, knocking the man out cold.

Ruby, meanwhile, was making excellent use of her scythe as an anchor for her body to spin around and kick one of the black-suited thugs in the face before using the blunt side of the scythe like a hammer to slam the thug into the ground, knocking him out cold while using the recoil from her scythe’s sniper rifle function to evade another flunkie’s gunfire, leaving an inexplicable trail of rose petals in her wake.

Within a matter of minutes, the last of Roman’s henchmen went down to the ground, dispatched by a combined kick from both Oscar and Ruby, the man’s inert form sliding down the street before stopping at the white-suited gangster’s feet as police sirens began to fill the air, gradually getting louder as the squad cars they belonged to got closer to the scene of the crime.

“That… was just sad,” Oscar said as he and Ruby stared down at the gangster before them. “I guess henchmen don’t hench like they used to, do they?”

“Evidently not,” Roman said, looking down at the unconscious flunky before him. “You were worth every cent, truly you were,” he told the man before returning his attention to the two teens before him. 

“Well, Red, Green, I think we can all say it’s been an eventful evening,” Roman said, allowing his cigar to fall from his mouth before smothering the lit end of it with his cane before pointing _Melodic Cudgel_ at the two teenagers. “And as much as I’d like to stick around…” he continued as a targeting sight popped open from the bottom of his cane. “I’m afraid this is where we part ways. Please, do tell me when the wedding is.”

Both Oscar and Ruby shot the white-clad gang leader a quizzical look just before what looked to be an explosive round fired at the two teenagers from the end of the gangster’s cane. Acting quickly, Ruby used the recoil from _Crescent Rose_ ’s sniper rifle function to simply jump over the blast, while Oscar did the same with the energy blast function he added to his version of _The Long Memory_. causing the explosive round to tear up a bit of the street when it impacted the ground.

_Ah, yes,_ thought Oscar as he and Ruby landed back onto the ground, only to find that Roman was nowhere to be found. _The classic ‘gangster-has-a-weapon-hidden-in-his-cane’ cliche… that one never gets old…_

After only a few short seconds of looking around, a familiar sound reached both Ruby and Oscar’s ears. Turning their heads towards the source of the noise, the two teenagers saw Roman climbing up the side of a nearby building via the fire escape. Either he had some form of air transportation ready and waiting or he was trying to find a place to hide. Although, a rooftop wasn’t exactly an ideal hiding spot from the authorities or someone as skilled as Ruby and Oscar were.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby saw the old storekeeper of the shop that she had been in as it was getting robbed looking out at the street, evidently having watched as the entire battle unfolded. Turning her head to look at the old man, Ruby asked him “You okay if we go after him?”

The old man nodded and made a noise that sounded like an “uh-huh.” 

Nodding her head in understanding, Ruby turned to look at Oscar. “You got a way to get up there?” she asked the green-clad boy.

“I think I can manage,” Oscar said, causing Ruby to nod before she and Oscar raced towards the building that Roman had been climbing up. Ruby used the recoil caused by _Crescent Rose_ in order to propel herself up the side of the building. Oscar, meanwhile, simply activated _The Long Memory_ ’s grapple function and used that to rocket up the side of the building, reaching the rooftop mere seconds behind Ruby.

“Hey!” Ruby called out to the fleeing gangster, causing him to stop running.

“We’re not done yet!” Oscar added as he moved to stand beside Ruby, entering into his starting stance.

Roman growled in frustration at the sound of the two teenagers’ voices. “Persistent...”

The very next second, a Bullhead rose up from the opposite side of the building before shining a large spotlight directly into Oscar and Ruby’s faces, blinding the two of them for a moment as the wind caused by the ship’s engines seemed to push them back while the ramp lowered for Roman to climb into the air vehicle.

Once he was safely onboard, Roman pulled out the Fire Dust crystal that he had been examining before his robbery had gone so far south and turned to face Oscar and Ruby, a cocky smirk plastered on his face.

“End of the line, kiddos!” Roman yelled as he threw the crystal, which landed at Ruby and Oscar’s feet, before firing another explosive round from _Melodic Cudgel_ at the crystal, forcing Oscar and Ruby to shield themselves as the explosive round hit the crystal, causing it to create a large explosion. Roman let out an exhilarated laugh at the sight of the explosion, clearly thinking that he had taken the two brats out of the picture for good. As the red-tinged smoke cleared, however, Roman’s face fell at the sight of a middle-aged woman with blonde hair wearing a white blouse with a black corset, black heels, a pair of bifocals, and a black cape that had a purple underside holding a riding crop as though it was a magic wand and she was using magic to create a barrier to protect Oscar and Ruby, both of whom couldn’t help but stop and stare in awe at the woman before them.

Pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, the woman scoffed and waved her riding crop, causing the shield she had created to disperse into several beams of energy that struck the Bullhead, causing it to start shaking violently like a leaf caught in a windstorm, causing Roman to nearly his footing and drop his cane. After a moment, however, Roman was able to regain his footing and make his way to the cockpit, where his new boss sat, struggling for control of the airship.

“We got a huntress,” Roman told his boss.

“I’ll deal with her, take the stick,” the woman told Roman as a black mask made of very durable glass formed on her face, completely obscuring it and making the entirety of her eyes glow a burning shade of yellow as she made her way towards the entrance ramp to face the huntress who was after them.

As the woman looked out upon the rooftop from the shadows, she saw three people standing there. One of them was an older woman holding a riding crop that she recognized as one of her enemy’s pawns. The woman supposed she should have expected the arrogant old man to try to meddle in her plans. With her was what seemed to be an adorable little girl that was holding a mechanical scythe that was bigger than she was. Honestly, it made the woman wonder if she was compensating for something, namely her height. But, there was something else about that girl… those big, pretty silver eyes… something about those eyes made her skin _crawl_ …

But, it was the third person, a young man about the same age as the girl with the scythe who had tanned skin and wore a green outfit that made him look like either a Mistralian tourist or that he was going on a long journey, that made her stop and stare. She didn’t know what it was, but something about him seemed different as opposed to most of the other enemies she had faced somehow. And the cane that he held in his hands was alarmingly familiar, despite the fact that it had been tricked out with what looked Atlas technology…

The woman forcefully shook herself out of her thoughts and focused her mind back on the fight that she and her henchman were currently caught up in, and just in time too, as the woman holding the riding crop struck a stance and aimed the crop directly over the airship and fired an energy blast. When the blast detonated, storm clouds that were nearly bursting with lightning appeared, and when the blonde woman waved her crop again, large spikes of hail rained down from the storm clouds and pierced through the Bullhead. One in particular almost pierced through Roman, and it would have had he not leaned to the side in time.

As the woman onboard the Bullhead emerged from the shadows and onto the ramp of the airship, the woman holding the riding crop narrowed her gaze at her dangerously, and if it had been one thing Oscar had learned from the war he had found himself drafted into back in his original timeline, it was when a woman looks at someone like the way the blonde was looking at the woman on the airship, it only meant one thing.

All Hell was about to break loose.

A small handful of fire appeared in the hand of the woman aboard the airship, which she proceeded to launch at the blonde, only for the older woman to use her riding crop to summon another shield and deflect the blast. However, some of the fire blast seemed to have splattered over the barrier, allowing the woman on the Bullhead to manipulate the splatter into a large plume of fire, forcing the older blonde to backflip out of the way of the blast.

Quickly recovering from the attack, the blonde woman waved her riding crop, freezing, then manipulating the broken pieces of the rooftop they were all standing on into a large projectile before launching it at the Bullhead, where the woman onboard quickly demolished it with a few blasts of fire, only for the older blonde woman to reform it just as fast as it had been destroyed, causing Roman to make evasive maneuvers with the Bullhead, thus causing the projectile to impact on the roof of the ship.

With another flick of her riding crop, the older blonde caused her projectile to separate into three separate, smaller projectiles that began to move around the ship in a serpentine pattern so as to make them harder for the woman on the Bullhead to destroy.

However, this tactic failed to deter the woman, who completely vaporized the fragments in a single blast of power, leaving glowing orange ashes to gently fall and disappear.

The blonde woman turned to glare at Oscar and Ruby, both of whom nodded in understanding, having gotten the message behind the glare. As Ruby’s scythe transformed into its sniper rifle mode, Oscar got _The Long Memory_ ready to fire. However, as Oscar fired his energy bolts and Ruby unloaded several high-caliber rounds from her weapon, the woman aboard the airship blocked both types of projectiles with her bare hands before using her power to cause several columns of fire to appear underneath Oscar, Ruby, and the older blonde, forcing the three of them to dive out of the way of the attack, thus giving enough time for Roman and the mysterious woman onboard the Bullhead to make their escape.

“Dammit! They got away…” Oscar cursed under his breath as he glared in the direction the Bullhead had gone as he pressed the button on his cane that caused it to retract back into its handle before attaching the handle to his belt.

Ruby, meanwhile, had other things on her mind than the fact that the gangster and his accomplice had gotten away, namely the fact that the woman who had come to their aid was a full-fledged Huntress.

“You’re a Huntress…” Ruby said, a huge, obviously excited smile on her face as her voice started to get close to “Squee!” territory. “Can I have your autograph?!”

_Vale Police Department-Interrogation Wing_

Instead of getting the autograph of the Huntress who had come to the aid of Ruby and her mysterious, green-clad ally, the both of them had instead been dragged down to the police station and stuck into separate interrogation rooms, where Ruby proceeded to get lectured by the Huntress. Needless to say, this was far, far from what she had had in mind.

“I hope you realize that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly, young lady. You and that boy put yourselves and others in great danger,” the Huntress said.

“They started it!” Ruby exclaimed defensively.

“If it were up to me, the two of you would be sent home, with a pat on the back…” the Huntress said before catching sight of Ruby’s hopeful expression. “And a slap on the wrist!” she snapped, slapping her riding crop on the table, causing Ruby to squeak and jump back in fright.

“But… there is someone here who would like to meet you,” the Huntress said before moving aside.

Through the open doorway emerged a man with flyaway gray hair wearing a wiry pair of spectacles, a black coat with a black vest and a bright green turtleneck with a silver brooch underneath, black pants held up by a black leather belt, and black dress shoes. In one hand, he held a plate of freshly baked cookies, while in the other he held a large coffee mug.

“Ruby Rose,” the man said before he took a closer look at Ruby. “You… have silver eyes.”

Ruby could make neither heads nor tails of this statement, as made evident by her expression and the fact that she could only seem to stammer out “Uh… umm…”

“So,” the man said as Glynda pulled up footage of Ruby and the green-clad boy’s fight with the gangsters. “Who is that young man you fought so flawlessly alongside, and where did you learn how to use that weapon of yours?”

“Well… I don’t know who he is, exactly, he didn’t really say his name. Honestly, I’m surprised we worked together as well as we did, considering we had literally just met,” Ruby explained, nervousness evident in her voice as she spoke.

“I see… and the weapon?” the man asked Ruby.

“Signal Academy,” Ruby said, nervousness still evident in her voice.

“They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?” the man asked Ruby, a serious look on his face.

“Well, one teacher in particular,” Ruby admitted.

“I see…” the man said, placing the plate of cookies on the table in front of Ruby, who looked up at the man, who nodded. Ruby slowly reached for one of the cookies and ate it. After that, Ruby proceeded to start scarfing down the cookie as fast as she could.

“It’s just that… I’ve only seen one other scythe wielder of that skill before, a dusty old crow,” the man said, wistfully looking at the ceiling as he spoke.

Ruby started to say something, but her mouth was too full of cookies, causing the man to look at her. Once she had finished swallowing her mouthful of cookies, Ruby continued what she was trying to say. “Sorry. That’s my Uncle Qrow. He’s a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing, now I’m all like-” she said before making a series of karate noises, complete with poses to match.

“So I’ve noticed,” the man said, setting his coffee mug down on the table before taking the seat across from Ruby. “And what is an adorable little girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?”

“Well… I want to be a Huntress,” Ruby said.

“You want to slay monsters?” the man asked Ruby.

“I only have two more years of training left at Signal, then I’m going to apply to Beacon. See, my sister’s starting there this year, and she’s trying to become a Huntress, and I’m trying to become a Huntress because I wanna help people, and our parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, ah, well, might as well make a career out of it. I mean, the police are all right, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so romantic and exciting and…” Ruby rambled on before she made a noise that sounded like she was choking on her own excitement.

The man sitting at the table and the Huntress who was standing nearby looked at Ruby with an expression that clearly conveyed what they were thinking. _Wow. Just… Wow._

After a moment, the man sitting at the table spoke up. “Do you know who I am?” he asked Ruby.

“You’re Professor Ozpin. You’re the Headmaster at Beacon,” Ruby said.

After a moment, Ozpin spoke again.”Hello,” he said.

“Nice to meet you,” Ruby said.

“So, you want to come to my school?” Ozpin asked Ruby.

“More than anything,” Ruby replied.

Ozpin cast a look over at the Huntress standing nearby, who made a noise before looking away, clearly annoyed.

“Well, okay.”

_A Short While Later..._

Oscar sat in the chair facing the door, his eyes closed and his chin resting against his bridged fingers, waiting for either Glynda Goodwitch or Ozpin himself to come and interrogate him, and trying to come up with a convincing story to tell them, hoping they would believe who and what he really was. Ozpin, he was sure he could convince, having once been the host of the ancient Warrior-King of Vale’s soul before it had merged with his own back during the final battle against Salem in his own timeline. Glynda, on the other hand, he had his doubts, as the woman was as strict and skeptical as she was loyal to Ozpin.

Oscar perked his head up at the sound of the door being opened, and looked to see who was entering the room.

“Hello there,” the new arrival, who seemed to be a man with gray hair wearing glasses and an outfit consisting of black and green holding a large cup of hot chocolate in his hand.

“Hello,” Oscar said, looking at the new arrival as he sat down across from him.

“My name is Ozpin, Headmaster of the Huntsman school Beacon Academy. Might I inquire as to yours?” Ozpin asked Oscar, who smiled.

_So… this is what you looked like, Ozpin…_ Oscar thought to himself before he spoke aloud. “My name is Oscar Pine. Pleasure to meet you face-to-face at last, Headmaster.”

“‘Face-to-face at last,’ you say?” Ozpin muttered to himself, his own suspicions about who the boy could possibly be, suspicions that originated from the cane that the boy had used while fighting Junior’s men, starting to become more and more likely, “I must say, that is quite an interesting cane that you have taken to using for your weapon, Mr. Pine,” Ozpin said.

“Oh, this old thing?” Oscar said, a smile on his face as he produced the handle of _The Long Memory_ and placed it on the table. “Got that off a drunk in a bar in Mistral. Took quite a beating from how often I ended up using it compared to its previous owners. So, out of concern that it might break one day while I was in the middle of a fight, when I happened to be up in Atlas, I took the opportunity to use their tech to give it a few new tricks and help to reinforce it to make it a bit more durable in combat.”

Ozpin’s face lit up with a curious smile. “Yes, that old thing. Now, you must tell me where you got that. Because, as far as I was aware, that cane was quite literally one-of-a-kind. And I…” the Headmaster said before he pulled out the handle for his own version of _The Long Memory_ and placed it on the table, right next to Oscar’s version. “...have the other one.”

Oscar’s smile grew to match Ozpin’s. “You already know who I really am, don’t you, Ozma?” he asked the Headmaster.

Ozpin nodded in confirmation. “Indeed I do. Which means I expect this conversation to be one of the utmost importance. So, tell me, why exactly have you come back in time, and how is it that you are in control as opposed to myself?”

“Well, I hope you’ll be satisfied with the short version. I’ll save the full version for when Qrow, Ironwood, and the others are around,” Oscar said before heaving a sigh before telling Ozpin his story.

As Oscar spoke, he revealed that the Vytal Festival that would be held in a few months time would become the powder keg that would ultimately bring about what the history books would likely refer to as either the Battle of Beacon, or the Fall of Beacon, resulting in not only the huntsman academy becoming completely overrun by the Creatures of Grimm, but the destruction of the Kingdom of Vale, thanks to the machinations and schemes set forth by Cinder Fall, the culprit behind the attack on Amber Autums, reducing the true Fall Maiden to the comatose state that she was currently in beneath Beacon Academy. The overwhelming negativity brought about by a match between Yang Xiao Long and one of Cinder’s allies, a boy named Mercury Black, coupled with a match between Pyrrha Nikos and Atlas’ secret project and an android that had a synthetic soul and took the form of a girl named Penny Polendina that resulted in the android being subjected to a razor floss treatment thanks to Pyrrha’s Semblance, which was then swiftly followed by a full-scale invasion by the White Fang. As if that wasn’t enough, Ironwood’s new AK-200s, along with his Paladins, were hacked by a virus created by Arthur Watts, thanks to Roman Torchwick, who had allowed himself to be captured. The virus had caused the AKs and Paladins to turn against Ironwood and the people of Vale they were supposed to be there to protect. To make matters worse, the CCT got knocked out not long after the AKs went rogue, making it look like Atlas had attacked Vale for no reason. The unprecedented amount of negativity launched what could only be described as a massive invasion force of Grimm, led by a _freaking Grimm Wyvern_ of all things. 

Torchwick, Pyrrha Nikos, and Ozpin, or more accurately, Ozpin’s current incarnation, would be but a few of the casualties of the Fall of Beacon. Eight months later, Oscar would find himself hearing Ozpin’s voice inside his head,urging him to follow through with his dreams of adventure and fulfil his desire to become something more than a mere farmhand. Oscar had been understandably reluctant at first, thinking that Ozpin had just been a voice in his head, he ultimately gave in and met up with Qrow Branwen, from whom he retrieved _The Long Memory,_ and met up with Ruby Rose and the remnants of Team JNPR, who had dubbed themselves “Team RNJR,” or “Team Ranger,” with Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna, and the members of Team SSSN and Team CFVY not long after.

“After several long years of fighting a bloody war, several betrayals, watching our allies and enemies die all around us, the time finally came to strom Salem’s castle. And while everyone who raided that castle died in the battle, myself and Ruby Rose included, we won,” Oscar said, concluding his story. “Salem was destroyed once and for all, mission accomplished. Or so I had thought, anyway. It… honestly came as something of a surprise when I woke up in an alley not far from here a couple days ago, in the body of my fifteen year old self, no less. Apparently, the God of Light felt sorry for me for having ended up being dragged into the Second Great War as a result of being your next reincarnation, so he gave me a chance to change the course of Remnant’s future. And that’s a chance I fully intend on taking and running all the way to the top with. And hopefully, this time, when we take the fight to Salem and end her once and for all, we can all get out alive.”

Ozpin, who had remained silent while Oscar told his story, took a sip of his hot chocolate. “I see… but, you never answered my other question. How is it that you are in control, and not myself, assuming you are, of course, the future version of my next reincarnation?”

“Simple, really. The assimilation backfired mere hours, or perhaps even minutes before it was completed, during the final battle with Salem. As a result, instead of my soul merging with yours, your soul merged with mine, thus allowing me to keep control of my body and attain your memories, massive Aura reserves, Semblance, and, of course, your awe-inspiring and godlike magical abilities. But, compared to what you remember magic feeling like, something seems off about the way mine works,” Oscar explained.

“‘Off’ how, exactly?” Ozpin asked Oscar.

“Well, I tried out a few simple spells, you know, transfiguration, fire, lightning, water, ice… and it felt like after a while, my magical reserves recharged themselves, like Aura does. I figure it’s either a side effect of the assimilation backfiring or a tremendous gift from the God of Light,” Oscar said with a shrug.

“I’m inclined to think it’s the latter,” Ozpin said as he took another drink of his hot chocolate. “But, I’m rather curious. What exactly caused the merger of our souls to backfire in such a manner?”

A sad look crossed Oscar’s face at that particular question. “Let’s just say that love is the most powerful of emotions, and that makes it the most dangerous. After all, look what it did to Salem,” Oscar told Ozpin, a deep sadness in his voice as he spoke.

“I see…” said Ozpin thoughtfully. “Well, then, Mister Pine, I would be honored to have you as a student at Beacon Academy. That way, you can help the students you said you encountered in your timeline overcome their shortcomings after the initiation’s over. And considering how Mr. Arc has lied his way into Beacon, he’ll need all the help and training he can get.”

“Agreed, although from what I’ve heard in my own timeline, Pyrrha Nikos was most certainly a big help with that before her passing. Even afterwards, she seemed to have left behind a series of training videos for him,” Oscar said, making a mental note to redirect Jaune away from Weiss Schnee and help him realize Pyrrha’s feelings for him before it was too late. In fact, he was going to make _damn_ sure that Team JNPR would still be intact, even if the Battle of Beacon still happened. “Even with Miss Nikos’ helping with his physical combat, he would most certainly benefit from additional help, especially since I know what his Semblance is. And I’m assuming it would be beneficial to have me close by in case you or one of your associates need help with something or help preventing something from my timeline from happening again?”

“Correct,” Ozpin said with a nod.

Oscar nodded. “All right, then I’m in. I didn’t really have any other plans outside of giving you and the others a heads-up on what’s coming, so this actually works out quite nicely.”

“Excellent. I will have the necessary paperwork filled out and arrange to have you provided with a fake identity, just in case your younger counterpart is still here, of course.” Ozpin said, a pleased smile on his face as he held out his hand for Oscar to shake.

“That’s probably a good call. Better to be safe than sorry,” Oscar said as he shook Ozpin’s hand.

“Well, I do believe that we’ve kept the others waiting for quite long enough. But first, let me see your Scroll. That way I can provide you with the proper information for boarding the airship,” he said. Oscar nodded and handed over the Scroll that he had found on him when he woke up, while Ozpin produced his own. After a few seconds, their contact information was exchanged and the two allies exited the room.

Oscar followed Ozpin through the halls of the Police station to the lobby, where Ruby, who had an expression on her face that suggested that Christmas had come early for her, and the Huntress from earlier were waiting.

“Now then, Miss Rose, I believe it would be best that you catch the next ship back to Patch. Your father and uncle would bury me alive if you missed the last ship heading home,” Ozpin said to Ruby, who nodded vigorously, bursting at the seams with excitement. “As for you, Mr. Pine, do you by chance have a place to stay for the night?”

“Yeah, I’m staying at a hotel here in the city,” Oscar said with a nod.

“Excellent. Well, this has been quite an eventful evening, so I do believe that I will be returning to the Academy. Miss Rose, Mr. Pine, I will see you both bright and early tomorrow morning,” said Ozpin, much to the Huntress’ apparent confusion as she followed Ozpin out the door, leaving Ruby and Oscar alone in the Police station.

“You know, I never did catch your name when that gangster and that woman aboard the airship were trying to kill us,” Oscar said, snapping Ruby out of her train of thought.

“Oh! I’m sorry! Name’s Ruby Rose!” said Ruby, holding out her hand to shake Oscar’s.

“Oscar Pine, pleased to meet you, Ruby,” said Oscar, shaking her hand as the two of them left the police station together.

“You know, I was actually kinda surprised. I mean, we literally just met tonight, and we were fighting those crooks together like we’d been on a team together for _years_. What was that about?” Ruby asked Oscar, whose pained winced went completely unnoticed by the red reaper.

“W-well, what can I say? I guess my fighting style is compatible with yours. Still, it was kinda spooky how easily we worked together,” Oscar said, not making eye contact with Ruby as he spoke.

“Yeah… well, I guess I’d better get going before my ship takes off! I’ll see you tomorrow on the airship to Beacon!” said Ruby as she started to run off in what Oscar could only assume was the direction of the airship docking station… completely unaware of the grieving look Oscar had on his face as he watched the younger version of his former girlfriend walk away...

_The Following Day..._

As he stood on board the airship heading for Beacon Academy, Oscar looked around at the students onboard, searching for familiar faces in the crowd. Already he had seen Weiss Schnee and a couple of baggage handlers. It was quite odd to see the Huntress who, while not inheriting her family’s company, would inherit her elder sister’s power as the Winter Maiden, after she had inherited it from that elderly woman, look around at everyone with an air of superiority. Oscar had also seen Pyrrha Nikos, who looked like she was desperately trying to avoid attention from the other students onboard the ship, and Jaune Arc, who looked green around the gills, most likely due to airsickness.

“Well, hello there, handsome.”

A voice from behind caused Oscar to turn around and come face-to-face with a girl about two years older than himself wearing a somewhat-revealing outfit with long blonde hair and magenta eyes. Ruby was standing nearby, an incredibly nervous look on her face.

“Yes, can I help you?” Oscar asked the busty blonde in front of him.

“Yang Xiao Long, Ruby’s big sis,” the blonde, Yang, said and held out her hand to Oscar.

“Oscar Pine, pleasure to meet you, Miss Xiao Long.” Oscar said, shaking Yang’s, decidedly _not_ robotic, hand.

“So, Rubes here was telling me about how you two teamed up to take down those crooks robbing that Dust store. As Ruby’s big sister, I hereby demand that you give me the dirt on what that’s all about,” Yang said, her hands on her hips and a teasing smile on her face as she looked at Oscar. 

“Yang, I told you, we just met that night, there’s nothing between us,” Ruby said, her face turning bright red with embarrassment. 

“And she’s absolutely right, there’s nothing between us,” Oscar confirmed. _Yet,_ he added in his mind before he continued talking aloud. “I just thought she could use some backup against those thugs, that’s all.”

“Uh-huh… we’ll just see about that… but, either way, if you hurt my baby sister, I’ll snap your neck,” Yang warned Oscar.

“Duly noted,” said Oscar before his attention was turned away from the conversation by a nearby news report that displayed the mugshot of the white-suited criminal he and Ruby had confronted last night.

_"The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Lisa."_

The screen changed topics to another story and reporter. Beside her was a picture of a group of protesters on the streets, along with an insignia of a red wolf's head with three claw marks over it.

_"Thank you, Cyril. In other news, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. The once peaceful organization has now disrupted-"_

Before the newscaster could finish, however, the feed cut out and a hologram of a woman that both Oscar and Ruby recognized as the Huntress from last night appeared in its place.

_"Hello, and welcome to Beacon,"_ the hologram of the Huntress began.

“Who’s that?” Yang asked both Oscar and Ruby, only for her question to be answered a moment later.

_"My name is Glynda Goodwitch,”_ the woman, now identified as Glynda Goodwitch, continued. _"You are among the privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with knowledge and training to protect our world."_

After Glynda was done, the hologram disappeared and Oscar let out a soft chuckle, allowing a small, wistful smile to cross his face as he looked out the nearby window and saw Beacon Academy once again, as shining and proud as it was in his memory. Or rather, as it was in Ozpin’s memory. Regardless of whose memory it was, it didn’t stop a feeling of nostalgia from overtaking him, even as Jaune lost his lunch nearby.

As the ship reached the docking bay entrance, a determined look crossed Oscar’s face as he pulled out and extended _The Long Memory_ while he and his fellow students departed the airship. 

For better or for worse, it was time to rewrite history. And this time, he would make sure that all of his friends, and the woman he had loved, would make it out alive, while Salem did not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus concludes the opening chapter! I think we’re off to a pretty decent start here in my opinion, and honestly this was quite a lengthy chapter to work on. Also, about Oscar’s version of The Long Memory… I can safely say that, compared to ANY of Ozma’s reincarnations who have used it, as far as I know or have seen, it has definitely been used in combat far more in Oscar’s hands, and despite the fact that it’s over several centuries old, there’s only so much punishment any weapon can take. Also, as far as the Winter Maiden goes, Ironwood’s plan worked. Winter ended up with the Winter Maiden’s powers, but, about four months before the final battle with Salem, she was killed in action. And, as a “screw you” to Cinder, Weiss ended up with the power. In any case, if you liked what you saw here, then be sure to kudo, bookmark, and comment, and I’ll see you guys next time for Oscar’s arrival at Beacon Academy.


	2. II. The Shining Beacon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, prospective readers, and welcome back to Clockwork: Volume One! Well, the opening chapter got us off to a pretty decent start, and that gives me the drive I need to keep working on this thing. Before we start allow me to address something here and now. Yes, I am fully aware of certain spoilerific details regarding the events of Volume Seven’s endgame, which I refuse to reveal on the off-chance that there are people out there who haven’t seen it yet. Regardless of these events, one must remember that Oscar Pine is currently trying to pull a Barry Allen and rewrite history in order to destroy Salem, but make sure everyone gets out alive this time, including Ruby and himself, as opposed to his timeline where everyone goes down swinging against Salem. So, to that extent, I have decided to invoke the “it’s time travel, I ain’t gotta explain shit” card, also known as the “this happened as a result of timeline manipulation and/or alteration” card. That way, I can keep things going as planned without fear of having to basically throw everything I’ve written thus far out the window, while taking these new developments into consideration. Besides, I’m sure that Volumes Eight and Nine will be out and over with by the time I get to that installment, so I should have time to think of a workaround for that. Additionally, I know I said that Oscar would be in action in this chapter, but research into other RWBY stories and crossovers has indicated that might not be the best idea, as this thing would take much, much too long to write, so Oscar being a badass will have to wait until next chapter. Additionally, I plan on keeping things as close to the canon as possible, at least until we get to the Volume Two arc, where Cinder and her allies start making their move, so while the Volume One arc won’t have much in terms of divergence, please be patient until Volume Two. Also, I need your thoughts on something for Volume Two. What would Oscar use during the food fight? Please leave your ideas in the reviews! All right, now that that’s out of the way, let us start the game!

_ Chapter II: The Shining Beacon _

_ Beacon Academy-Courtyard Entrance _

As Oscar walked out of the airship and gazed upon the Academy before him, he couldn’t help but let out an impressed whistle among the various "oohs" and "wows" of the other students as they stepped through the entrance, marveling at the sight of Beacon Academy. Oscar, for his part, had seen pictures of the academy before from books and photos, even before its Headmaster had moved into his mind and began to assimilate his soul into the conglomerate that made up his own. But, this was his first time not only seeing the prestigious academy in person for himself, but it was his first time setting foot on its campus while the school was in its prime.

As Oscar looked around, he saw that there were other ships docking, dropping more passengers. Like himself and the young men and women who would ultimately make up the members of Teams RWBY and JNPR, they were students who were also invited to attend the school. He looked at the teenagers walking through the entrance before he glanced back at Beacon. Oscar had to admit, for an academy specialized in training future Huntsmen and Huntresses, its students seemed very carefree. 

_ But, that will change soon enough… especially if Cinder’s plans for the Vytal Festival come to fruition like they did in my timeline, and the Second Great War begins again, _ thought Oscar, his grip on  _ The Long Memory _ tightening as he remembered the screams and shouts of pain and fear of civilians, police officers, Huntsmen, Huntresses, and students at this very academy alike as Ozpin, Jaune Arc, and Pyrrha Nikos had dashed into the vault hidden underneath Beacon Academy, where the half-dead body of Amber Autumns slept as Grimm, rogue Atlesian Knights, and soldiers of the White Fang killed, injured, mangled, and tore them apart, be it literally or figuratively.

Oscar was pulled out of his thoughts by Jaune Arc losing his lunch once again nearby. Shaking his head, Oscar continued to walk towards Beacon’s main entrance, but not before he caught sight of Yang and Ruby again. The younger version of his former girlfriend seemed to be as giddy as a schoolgirl, which she technically was now that she was a student at Beacon, as she looked at the other students, or more precisely, their various weapons and equipment. 

Indeed, this version of Ruby Rose was a far cry from the battle-hardened, deadly skilled, beautiful warrior he had given his heart to, just as she had given him hers. But, he had to admit, she was infinitely more adorable. Or would that be adorkable?

Oscar shook his head to clear his mind of the thoughts that had surfaced from his memories. True, he and Ruby had been romantically involved in his timeline, even as Ozma slowly assimilated him into the conglomerate that the ancient warrior’s soul had been made up off, despite having sealed himself off from Oscar’s mind right until Salem had arrived at Atlas, and even after the fact, he was surprisingly dormant, only intervening when Oscar or those around him were in truly dire straits, before sealing himself off again, apparently still too ashamed and consumed by his regrets, mistakes, and outright failures to actually face the former allies that he had lied to and kept such a horrible secret about the truth behind his past from. Admittedly, Oscar, though he would forever deny such a thing, was thankful to the gods for that, as he and Ruby had been intimate with each other on more than one occasion. This, however, was a new timeline, which meant that this was a whole new ballgame, which meant that Ruby might be swept off her feet by someone else before he even had a shot at her.

Oscar was quickly pulled out of his inner turmoil when he caught sight of Yang dragging her sister away from one of the other students. It seemed as though the red reaper had been swooning over the student’s weapon, which appeared to be a fire sword of some kind. The owner of the weapon could only blink in confusion as the strange girl was dragged away. 

_ Well, I don’t have anything better to do right now besides heading to the auditorium and wait for Ozpin to make his speech, so I might as well hang out here for the moment, _ thought Oscar, recalling the speech that Ozpin would soon deliver to the first years, with the confused and concerned whispers that had followed the Headmaster, apparently alarmed by his sudden personality shift, as he returned to his office after leaving the stage. And so, Oscar continued observing the sisters, doing his best to stay out of sight as he focused on their conversation.

“Easy there, little sister. They’re just weapons,” Yang said as she released Ruby from her grasp.

“‘Just weapons?’” Ruby asked her older half-sister, seemingly alarmed by how dismissive she was towards the wide, wide range of instruments of death that was spread out before them. “They’re an extension of ourselves! They’re a part of us! Ooh, they’re so cool…”

"Well, why can't you swoon over your  _ own  _ weapon? Aren't you happy with it?" asked Yang.

"Of course I'm happy with  _ Crescent Rose _ !" said Ruby as she took her weapon and unfolded it, transforming the massive metal death machine into its scythe mode, snuggling her weapon as though it was her precious newborn child. "I just really like seeing new ones! It's like meeting new people, but better..."

Yang heaved a sigh. "Ruby, come on, Why don't you try and make some friends on your own?" the busty blonde said as she pulled Ruby’s hood down over her head, only for the red reaper to pull it back off again.

"B-but… why would I need friends when I have you?" Ruby asked her sister, a pout evident in her voice as she looked up at her.

"Well..." Yang started to say before a large group of people appeared out of seemingly nowhere and surrounded Yang, clamouring and talking to the girl nonstop, making it difficult for Oscar and Ruby to actually understand or hear what they were saying. 

"Actuallymyfriendsareheregottagocatchupokayseeyabye!" Yang shouted towards her younger sister as she and her friends took off to do their own thing, leaving Ruby not only quite literally in their dust, but spinning around in circles, completely and utterly dazed and confused.

“Wait, where are you going?! Aren’t we supposed to go to our dorms?! Where  _ are _ our dorms?! Do we have dorms?! Ha… I don’t know what I’m doing...” Ruby said, her confusion rendering her oblivious to the fact that Yang was long gone before she fell over onto a set of luggage that bore an all-too-familiar snowflake emblem.

Oscar, meanwhile, blinked a few times, trying to process what had just unfolded.  _ Well, that was rather irresponsible of Yang to leave her little sister all alone like that. And who the Hell are these friends of hers all of a sudden, and why did Yang never mention anything about them before? Did they have some kind of falling out because of what happened at the Vytal Festival?  _ he thought as he began to approach Ruby, concerned for the red reaper. A concern that quickly increased when the owner of the luggage, a girl two years older than him with long, snow-white hair wearing a white jacket with the same snowflake emblem with a matching corset, what appeared to be a white combat skirt of some kind that had a belt that held a rapier with what looked like a revolver chamber built the crossguard, with the visible slots holding items that were colored like the rainbow, and white boots with heels. let out a very loud, very shrill scream that caused Oscar to cover both of his ears and scrunch up his face in agony.

“What are you doing?!” the white haired girl screeched at Ruby.

"Uh… S-sorry!" Ruby said nervously, as she looked up at the girl in white, an apologetic look on her face.

The girl in white gave her enraged, yet somehow snotty sort of look that seemed to be intended to imply that Ruby had just committed a great and unforgivable sin while she continued yelling at her. "Sorry?! Do you have any idea of the damage you could have caused?!"

Ruby winced as she was berated by the white-clothed stranger as she absentmindedly picked up one one of the cases. 

Oscar began to feel a strong urge to smack the girl in white upside the head with  _ The Long Memory _ . Poor Ruby had absolutely no clue as to why this girl was yelling at her like this. Sure, Ruby may have risked damaging something highly breakable, or considering who the luggage belonged to, highly volatile, by accidentally falling onto the cart, but there was absolutely no reason at all for Weiss Schnee to be such a  _ bitch _ about it.

"Uh…" Ruby said completely helpless as this girl in white continued to berate her.

"Give me that!" Weiss barked at Ruby before she snatched the case from the red reaper’s hands and opened it to reveal a rainbow of vials. "This is Dust, mined and purified from a Schnee quarry!"

"Uuuh…" Ruby groaned, still much too out of it to give a proper response to the girl in white.

"What are you, brain-dead?!" Weiss snarled at Ruby as she took out one of the vials and shook it in front of the other girl, unknowingly causing the Dust particles to leak from the bottle as she did so. "Dust! Fire, water, lightning, energy!"

"I… I know…" Ruby said, coughing as the Dust particles leaked onto her face while her nose started to feel itchy.

"Are you even listening to me?! Is any of this sinking in?! What have you got to say for yourself?!" Weiss yelled as more and more of the precious material clouded around them.

“This cannot end well…” muttered Oscar, having noticed what Weiss had not, namely the cloud of crimson Dust that had enshrouded them, and the fact that Ruby looked like she was right about to sneeze.

Not even a second after the words left his mouth, Ruby let out a mighty “ACHOO!” 

The results were instantaneous. Ruby’s sneeze agitated to the point of combustion. The flames, powdered snow, and lightning that were generated from the explosion hit Weiss in the face, causing her to throw the vial of Dust into the air.

When the cloud caused by the explosion dissipated, there was a small, barely noticeable, crater where the epicenter of the blast had been, from which a soot-covered Weiss emerged. From the looks of things, she was unharmed, but she looked  _ beyond _ pissed off. From what Oscar could see from his position, either the Dust hadn’t generated enough force for it to have been able to harm people or Weiss’ Aura had absorbed the blast force. But, even if no one was hurt by the explosion, getting covered in soot was a sure-fire way to ruin someone’s day.

Shaking off the soot, Weiss shot a look at Ruby that would’ve killed her a thousand times over if it could. "Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!" she snarled at the red reaper.

Ruby fidgeted, looking embarrassed and apologetic. "I-I'm really, really sorry!" she squeaked out.

"Ugh, you complete dolt! What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?" Weiss asked, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at Ruby suspiciously.

Oscar, for his part, had seen just about enough. With a furious look on his face, Oscar walked up to Weiss,  _ The Long Memory _ held tightly in his grasp.

“Yes. Yes, she is. And so am I, as you can clearly see,” Oscar said as he looked Weiss dead in the eye, causing the heiress to falter somewhat. “Ruby and I were invited to this academy two years in advance by personal invitation from Headmaster Ozpin himself, so clearly he thinks that we’re skilled enough to keep up with the older students, regardless of what you or any of the other students here think,” Oscar said, causing both Weiss and Ruby to go wide-eyed with shock and surprise at just how  _ brutal _ the green-clad boy was with his words. “But, if you really want to bring someone’s age into question, then what I’d like to know is aren’t you a little old to be acting like a stuck-up, snotty, arrogant little brat, princess? Last time I checked, it was your younger brother’s job to act his shoe size instead of his age.”

At Oscar’s cool, confident, and downright armor-piercing rebuke, Weiss found herself floundering, unable to form a coherent sentence in response while Ruby merely mouthed the words  _ Holy… Cow... _

Thankfully for Weiss, salvation came from another female voice. “It’s heiress, actually.”

Oscar, Ruby, and the white-clad girl turned to face the source of the new voice and found a girl in a black-and-white sleeveless outfit with a bow on top of her raven hair that Oscar instantly recognized as Blake Belladonna, the Faunus who had put the “B” in Team RWBY. Oscar supposed that the bow was meant to conceal her cat ears and thus her true nature as a Fanus, recalling how Ruby once told him that she had once been a member of the White Fang, having been, as Blake herself had put it, born into it, and had remained a member of it even after her father, who had been the group’s founder and original leader, had stepped down, before becoming disillusioned with their far more violent methods under Sierna Khan’s leadership, as well as her ex-boyfriend, Adam Taurus, becoming consumed by a desire for Faunus-kind to reign supreme over humanity, thanks in no small part due to the brand that the Schnee Dust Company had ruined his face with, hence why he wore that Grimm mask all the time. 

As Blake approached the group, Oscar saw that she was holding a book and the vial of Dust that had been blown out of the white-haired girl’s hands after the explosion.

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world," Blake calmly continued.

Weiss gave a smug smile and crossed her arms together, a stance that seemed to positively ooze arrogance. "Finally! Some recognition!" Weiss said, smugness and superiority dripping from her voice as she spoke before glaring daggers at both Oscar and Ruby.

However, what Blake said next quickly took the wind out of Weiss’ sails. "The same company that is infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners.”

"Wha-" Weiss stammered, her arrogance quickly deserting her and leaving floundering helplessly while Ruby giggled and Oscar let out a hearty snicker, mainly because of Weiss’ helpless floundering "How dare you-" She stammered as she glared at the new girl. "The nerve of… ugh!"

Weiss went to the girl and snatched the vial away from her hand, walking off with an arrogant huff while a few men in suits gathered her luggage and followed.

"I promise I'll make this up to you!" Ruby called after Weiss. “I guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day… So, what's-" Ruby started to say before she saw Blake walking off as well. With them gone, Ruby collapsed to the ground.

"Welcome to Beacon…" muttered Ruby, feeling completely helpless and dejected as she laid upon the ground.

“Hey, don’t give up hope just yet,” Oscar said as he retracted  _ The Long Memory  _ back into its handle and reattached it to his belt before he held his hand out to help Ruby up. 

The red reaper looked at Oscar's face for a moment before she took his hand. After pulling her up, Oscar quickly realized how small the girl actually was as opposed to the version he had first met back in his timeline, and that her hand, despite being slightly callused from the use of  _ Crescent Rose _ , was small and fragile enough that Oscar was afraid that he might break it with a squeeze. “I mean, that Schnee girl seemed like a total bitch, and that one girl… well, I’m not entirely sure what to make of her, but you still got two friends here at Beacon Academy,” said Oscar as he looked down at the petite girl beside him.

Ruby tilted her head in confusion. “ _ Two _ friends? What do you mean?” she asked the green-clad boy who gave her a gentle smile in response.

“Well, there’s your sister Yang, which I’m pretty sure makes her a friend by default, and then there’s me,” Oscar listed off. “I mean, you and I  _ did _ team up against that Torchwick guy and his men. Hard not to be friends after that, wouldn’t you say?”

"I… umm…" stammered Ruby, thinking about what Oscar had said as her nerves started to get the better of her.

Oscar smiled gently as he held out his hand. "Look, I won't force you to be friends if you don’t want to, but we both can't be alone forever, can we? So, why don’t we be friends?" he said.

Ruby took a deep breath before she shook Oscar’s hand. "Alright. L-let's… let's be friends," she said, smiling bashfully as her face turned as red as her cloak.

“All right, then,” Oscar said, letting go of Ruby’s hand as he pulled out his Scroll and checked the message Ozpin had sent him earlier that day. "Come on, Ruby. We need to go to the auditorium, that’s where all the first-years are supposed to gather,” Oscar said as he turned on his heel and started to walk away.

"Right!" said Ruby before she followed after Oscar, only for the both of them to stop dead in their tracks at the sound of a timid male voice.

“Uh-um, excuse me?” the voice said, causing Oscar and Ruby to turn around towards the source of the voice to see Jaune Arc, who still seemed to be slightly green around the gills, was walking towards them. “I, um, overheard you guys talking about how all the first-years at Beacon were supposed to meet up at the auditorium, but I… kinda left my map in my things, which I sent ahead of me. D-do you guys think I could tag along with you, maybe?”

“Not at all. My name’s Oscar Pine, this is Ruby Rose,” said Oscar, a small smile on his face as he introduced himself and Ruby.

“Hey,” said Ruby before her face fell as she began to recognize the blonde before her. “Aren’t you that guy who threw up on the ship?” she asked the boy, much to his embarrassment.

_ A Short While Later… _

“All I’m saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on!” Jaune said defensively as he, Ruby, and Oscar walked in what appeared to be a random direction.

“Look, I’m sorry, ‘Vomit Boy’ was the first thing that came to mind!” Ruby said apologetically.

“And I’m pretty sure that wasn’t motion sickness, that was airsickness. There’s a difference,” Oscar said, a small smile on his face as he looked at Jaune.

“Whatever it was,” Jaune said to Oscar before returning his attention to Ruby. “What if I called you ‘Crater Face?’”

“Hey, that explosion was an accident!” Ruby said defensively.

“And it was mostly that Schnee girl’s fault to begin with. She was so caught up in acting all superior to Ruby that she didn’t even notice the Dust leaking out of vial to begin with,” Oscar added in support of Ruby.

“Well, the name’s Jaune Arc!” Jaune declared defiantly. “Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!”

Oscar quirked an eyebrow as he looked at Jaune with an amused smile on his face. “Do they really?” he asked.

“They will!” Jaune said before his face started to fall. “At least, I hope they will… my Mom always says that…” he continued before heaving a sigh. “N-never mind.”

Both Oscar and Ruby couldn’t help but give a small chuckle at Jaune, namely because of how big of a dork he was being.

Silence reigned supreme for a few moments while the trio continued walking in a random direction until Ruby decided to break the silence. “So… I got this thing,” she said before pulling out  _ Crescent Rose _ and unfolding it into its scythe form, causing both Oscar and Jaune to jump back in surprise and fright as the tip of the weapon crashed into the ground.

“Holy Oum, Ruby! A little warning before you pull out that death machine next time, please!” Oscar cried out in terror.

“Yeah, no kidding! But, seriously, is that a scythe?” Jaune asked Ruby, alarm highly evident in his voice as he spoke.

“It’s also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle,” said Ruby as she cocked the rifle built into her massive death machine.

“Uh… wha?” Jaune asked, clearly confused by what Ruby was talking about.

“It’s also a gun,” Ruby summarized as she cocked her rifle again.

“Oh, that-that’s cool!” Jaune said, nervousness still evident in his voice.

“So, what do you two have?” Ruby asked Jaune and Oscar.

“Well…” Jaune said before he drew a sword that Oscar immediately recognized as  _ Crocea Mors. _

“Oooooh…” Ruby said, her eyes lighting up in delight at the sword.

“Yeah, I’ve got a shield, too,” said Jaune, pulling out the aforementioned shield as it mecha-shifted from its compact form.

“So, what do they do?” asked Ruby, reaching out for the weapons, only to leap back in right when Jaune’s shield suddenly collapsed back into its portable form, forcing the blonde to unsuccessfully play hot potato with it until it fell to the ground, causing Oscar to roll his eyes.

_ By the Gods, how did anyone  _ not _ figure out he cheated his way into Beacon BEFORE he flat-out said it? _ thought Oscar.  _ Then again, he might be a pathetic excuse for a warrior of any type now, but that does change in something of a hurry thanks to Miss Nikos. The sooner those two get together, the better. Then again… if Pyrrha still dies in this timeline… it could be so much worse for Jaune if they actually get together for real… _

Unaware of Oscar’s inner monologue as he picked his shield up, Jaune proceeded to answer Ruby’s question. “Uh, the shield gets smaller… so when I get tired of carrying it… I can just… put it away,” he said, completely embarrassed by the turn of events.

Ruby tilted her head in confusion. “But… wouldn’t it weigh the same?” she asked Jaune.

“Yeah, it does,” Jaune admitted, sounding completely dejected.

“And, what about you?” Ruby asked Oscar.

“Well, I have this,” said Oscar, removing  _ The Long Memory _ from his belt and extending it. “It’s called  _ The Long Memory _ , the perfect weapon for the traditional Meister style of combat.”

“‘Meister?’” Ruby said, her head tilted in confusion before something clicked with her. “Hey, that’s the same combat style my Uncle Qrow uses! Except, his version uses scythes and swords instead of canes.”

Oscar chuckled. “Yes, I have been told that there are different variants of the Meister style of combat. I, however, am a practitioner of the old, traditional style of the Meister name. Mine is a fighting style that centers around fighting with a dull blade, yet still exemplifying grace and death. Sure, my cane might seem dull and primitive, but it packs on heck of a punch despite its age, and even more so thanks to the improvements I made to it.”

“You see,  _ The Long Memory _ has been passed down and around through my bloodline for at least several centuries, father to son, mother to daughter, and in the off-chance the current owner was childless, uncle to nephew, aunt to niece, cousin to cousin, brother to brother, and sister to sister,” Oscar continued, his fabricated story of how he got his weapon coming to him as easily as he breathed, most likely because of Ozpin being as proficant of a liar as he had been. Then again, it wasn’t exactly like Oscar could just straight-up tell them the truth about his weapon’s origins anymore than he could reveal the truth behind who and what he was, at least, not without making himself look and sound like a total lunatic.

“By the time it came into my possession, it had been around the block quite a bit, and I was worried it would break in battle one day, so when my family and I were on a trip to Atlas, I took the opportunity to use some of their technology to help reinforce it and make it a bit more durable in battle, plus give it a few new tricks, like a grapple feature and the ability to fire plasma blasts,” said Oscar as he held out  _ The Long Memory _ for Ruby and Jaune to examine. “The handle is made from a mythril-orichalum-titainium-platinum hybrid alloy, so it’s exceptionally sturdy, even more so than before it got the Atlas tech upgrade treatment. The shaft is made from the wood of an old Aura tree, refurbished and refined, as well as reinforced and enhanced by the same hybrid alloy as the handle, thanks to my trip to Atlas.”

A grin crossed Oscar’s face as he finished his explanation of  _ The Long Memory _ ’s specifications and schematics. “Not bad for a glorified walking stick, eh? Plus, kinda completes the look, don’t you think?” Oscar concluded as he struck a pose with  _ The Long Memory _ , causing Ruby and Jaune to chuckle a little bit.

“Well… almost,” Ruby said with a smile as she looked over Oscar’s outfit with his cane. “All you need now is a top hat, then the look would really be complete.”

Oscar chuckled. “Well, to be honest, I was considering getting one, but I couldn’t really find any in a color that would really work with the outfit. All joking aside, though, I have to ask. Why the interest in our weapons?” he asked Ruby. It seemed as though this younger version of his former girlfriend was more interested in instruments of death than the people who actually wielded them, a stark contrast from the version he had met back in his timeline.

Ruby chuckled nervously. “Well… truth be told, I’m kinda a dork when it comes to weapons. I guess I did go a little overboard when designing  _ Crescent Rose _ ,” the red reaper sheepishly admitted.

“Wait, you  _ made _ that?!” both Oscar and Jaune exclaimed in shock, this tidbit of information coming as a legitimate surprise to the young time traveller.

“Of course! All students in Signal Academy forge their own weapons! I mean, Oscar said that his has been passed down through his bloodline, but I would’ve thought that you had made yours,” Ruby said to Jaune.

“It’s a hand-me-down,” Jaune admitted, looking thoroughly dejected as he spoke. “My great-great grandfather used it to fight in the war.”

“Sounds more like a family heirloom to me,” Ruby said, a smile on her face. “Well, I like it. Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days.”

“Although, considering the fact that nearly every weapon here has a gun or some other form of projectile weapon incorporated into in some way, shape, or form, it’s kinda easy to see why that would be the case,” Oscar said matter-of-factly.

“Yeah… the classics…” Jaune said as he sheathed his sword.

As the three of them kept walking in their random direction, Ruby turned to look at Oscar before clearing her throat. “So, Oscar… why did you help me back there? In the courtyard?” she asked the green-clad young man.

“The same reason I helped you out against Torchwick and his goons. You looked like you could use a little help, especially after your sister ditched you like that and Schnee started yelling at you like that. Plus, that’s what boyfri-er, I mean,  _ friends _ are for, right? They help each other when they need it,” Oscar said, silently praying that Ruby wouldn’t notice his near slip-up, although judging from the expression on Ruby’s face, it didn’t seem like she did.

“And even if he hadn’t been there, I definitely would’ve. After all, my mom always says, ‘strangers are friends you haven’t met yet,’” said Jaune.

A moment later, as the three warriors continued walking in their random direction, Ruby spoke up, apparently having realized something. “Hey, where are we going?” Ruby asked Jaune and Oscar.

“I dunno, I was just following you guys,” Jaune sheepishly admitted.

“Great, we’re lost, then,” Oscar said before he caught sight of something nearby. “Well, considering the fact that all the first years are supposed to gather in the auditorium, might I suggest we follow that large crowd of people over there?”

Ruby and Jaune turned to look at the large crowd of people walking in the exact same direction, namely towards a particularly large building.

“Well, that’s about as good a bet as any, so let’s get over there and follow the crowd!” said Ruby before the three warriors made their way towards the massive herd of people nearby, in the hopes they would lead them to the Auditorium.

  
  


_ A Few Moments Later, At The Beacon Academy Auditorium… _

As it turned out, Oscar’s hunch was right. The crowd had led them directly to the Auditorium, where there was a massive crowd of people gathering near a massive stage. No sooner had the trio arrived than a familiar voice cut through the crowd.

“Ruby!” called Yang, waving her hand high in the air as she called for her younger sister. “Over here! I saved you a spot!”

“Oh! I gotta go! I’ll see you guys after the ceremony!” Ruby called out over the crowd’s racket before she departed to go and join her sister.

“Hey, wait!” Jaune called out to Ruby, but she was already out of ear shot, leaving Jaune to give a defeated sigh. “Great… now where am I gonna find a nice quirky girl to talk to?”

Oscar chuckled. “Well…” he said, having caught sight of Pyrrha Nikos standing nearby, grabbed ahold of Jaune.

“Huh? What’re you doing-?” asked Jaune as Oscar turned him around to face Pyrrha.

“There’s a nice quirky girl for you to talk to, right there,” said Oscar, pointing at Pyrrha as he spoke.

“Whoa, damn, she’s hot. You found me a good one, Oscar!” he exclaimed as he started to walk towards the girl in question while Oscar gave a small smile at the two of them. 

_ Operation: Arkos, Step One: Mission Accomplished _ , Oscar thought to himself as he departed to go find his own place in the crowd, and ultimately ended up not too far from where Ruby, Yang, and, unbeknownst to either of the sisters, Weiss Schnee, were currently standing. 

From the sound of it, Oscar had arrived just in time to hear Ruby going on a rant about how she had just wanted Schnee to stop yelling at her, but before she could get to the part about how Oscar had stepped up to the plate to help her, Schnee decided to make her presence known.

“YOU!” Schnee snarled, causing Ruby to jump into her sister’s arms.

“OH, GOD, IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN!” cried Ruby in sheer panic and terror.

“YOU WERE LUCKY WE WEREN’T BLOWN OFF THE SIDE OF THE CLIFF!” Schnee snarled at Ruby, fuming with anger as she spoke.

“Oh my God, you really exploded,” was Yang’s intelligent response to learning that Ruby had literally caused an explosion in front of the school.

“It was an accident!” Ruby said before Schnee shoved what appeared to be a pamphlet that read  _ Dust For Dummies And Other Inadequate Individuals _ into her face. “What’s this?”

Schnee then began reciting what sounded like some sort of disclaimer that  _ had _ to have been written down somewhere seemed to start out understandable enough, but for some reason unknown to man and quite possibly fanus alike, quickly started sounding like a higher power had pressed the fast forward button on her voice.

_ Did… did I just activate my Semblance without realizing it? _ thought Oscar as he checked his form for any sign of the wild, ebbing, and flowing green shroud of power that usually accompanied his Aura whenever he manifested it, every single word that Schnee had just said flying completely over his head, and from the looks of things, Ruby wasn’t much better off, as she could only give Weiss a confused “Uh…”

Schnee rolled her eyes in frustration. “You really want to start making things up to me?” she asked Ruby, irritation highly evident in her voice.

“Absolutely?” Ruby said, nervousness entering her voice once again.

“Read this and don’t ever speak to me again,” Weiss said as she stuffed the pamphlet into Ruby’s hands.

“Look…” Yang said, rubbing the back of her neck in uncertainty. “Sounds like you just got off on the wrong foot. Why don’t you just start over and try to be friends?”

“Sure! Great idea, Sis!” Ruby said as she held her hand out to shake Weiss’. “Hello, Weiss. I’m Ruby. You wanna hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies.”

“Yeah, and we can try on clothes, and paint our nails, and talk about cute boys like tall, green and scraggly over there,” said Weiss, her voice positively dripping with sarcasm as she pointed at Oscar, who rolled his eyes at Weiss. However, it appeared as though the sarcasm had flown directly over Ruby’s head.

“Wow, really?!” the red reaper squealed excitedly.

Weiss just looked at Ruby as silenced reigned for a moment before Weiss gave her a rather blunt answer. “No,” she said.

_ And here I thought Weiss was an Ice Queen when we first met back in my timeline, but compared to how she’s acting now… I think it’s safe to say that she might have actually defrosted a bit. Wonder if it was her team or Neptune who was responsible for that,  _ thought Oscar before he returned his attention to the stage, where Ozpin was approaching the podium. From what Oscar could see of the headmaster and wizard, he seemed tired for some reason, like he hadn’t gotten enough sleep or something. After tapping the microphone a couple of times, Ozpin cleared his throat and began his speech.

"I'll… keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But, I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction..." Ozpin said, even as whispers broke out amongst the students. “You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step.”

With that, Ozpin concluded his speech and departed the stage. Oscar, for his part, couldn't help but agree with what the old wizard had said, and the underlying message behind the speech. Ozpin may have seemed like he was giving his new students a speech on the reason they all sucked, but in truth, he was actually daring them all to be badasses. It was a dare that they couldn’t afford to turn down if they wanted to survive in this profession that they had chosen for themselves. Reading a book, obtaining knowledge, and training to kill these monsters born from the darkness in a somewhat simulated and protected environment was one thing. Actually engaging these dark creatures in combat and putting them down like the abominations and demons they were in the unprotected and extremely dangerous real world where one false step, a single mistake, the smallest window of opportunity could lead to the deaths of innocents, the deaths of your allies, or even your own death, that was another beast entirely.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your Initiation begins. Be ready," Glynda said as she took the stage before adjusting her bifocals. "You are all dismissed."

As the other students began to depart the Auditorium, Yang, Ruby, and Weiss lingered a bit, all three of them rubbed the wrong way by Ozpin’s demeanor during his welcoming speech.

“He seemed a little… off,” said Yang.

“It was almost like he wasn’t even there,” said Ruby. Ozpin’s demeanor did seem different from the night that she had meant him for the first time, but there was something else about Ozpin that was bugging her too.

The Headmaster’s cane… it looked almost identical to Oscar Pine’s weapon,  _ The Long Memory _ just without the upgrades Oscar said he had given the weapon while he had been in Atlas. 

And if there was one thing Ruby knew about weapons for an absolute, undeniable fact, it was that no two weapons were the exact same, at least, not as close as Ozpin and Oscar’s canes came to being the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus concludes the second chapter! Man, I’m really feeling good about how this is going thus far, and I hope that it will only continue to get better! And what’s this, I see? Ruby’s starting to get suspicious because of the canes… oooh, I wonder how this will play out? In any case, if you liked what you saw here, then be sure to kudo, bookmark, and comment, and I’ll see you all next time for The Initiation! For real, this time, I promise!


	3. III. The Initiation Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, prospective readers, and welcome back to Clockwork: Volume One! I gotta admit, this little venture is shaping out to be my finest RWBY work yet! And that gives me really warm fuzzies.
> 
> Now, before we start, just a minor note about this chapter. In it, I mention something called a Scripture. In case anyone is wondering, a Scripture is basically the Remnant counterpart of a home computer, made by the same guys who invented the Scroll, Scrier Technologies. The "laptop" model is simply called a Scripture, while the traditional, stationary models are known as Slabs. Also, Intermediate Education is basically the Remnant version of regular, non-huntsman middle school, with Basic Education being regular elementary school, and Advanced Education being regular high school and/or college.
> 
> Well, with that said, I don’t really have anything else to talk about, so let us start the game!

_ Chapter III: The Initiation Begins _

_ Beacon Academy Locker Rooms-The Following Morning _

“You seem awfully chipper this morning,” Yang said as Ruby opened her locker. The two sisters had just arrived in the locker rooms only a few moments ago, having just finished breakfast behind a particularly stoic-looking young man with black hair that had a pink stripe in it, and a particularly over-excited redhead.

“Yep!” said Ruby cheerfully as she pulled out  _ Crescent Rose _ in its compact form before snuggling it as though it was her newborn child. “No more awkward small talk or getting-to-know you stuff. Today, I get to let my sweetheart do the talking!”

Yang sighed before she walked up and patted her sister's head. "Well, remember, Ruby, you're not the only one going through initiation. If you wanna grow up, you're gonna have to meet new people and learn to work together," she reminded the red reaper.

“Ugh, you sound like Dad!" Ruby groaned as she pushed Yang's hand away from her head and closed her locker. "Okay, first of all, what does meeting new people have to do with fighting? And secondly, I don't need people to help me grow up! I drink milk!" the red reaper declared as she crossed her arms and an indignant expression crossed her face.

“That… doesn’t really make her argument invalid, Ruby,” a familiar voice said from nearby.

Ruby and Yang turned towards the source of the voice and found Oscar Pine standing there,  _ The Long Memory _ held in his hand as he smiled at the two girls. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to eavesdrop on you all,” Oscar said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck as he approached the girls. “But, in all honesty, Ruby, you'd be surprised how much meeting people has to do with fighting. Meeting other people helps you to form connections with others that will see you through good and bad times alike, and trust me when I say that having that bond of friendship and comradery, that shoulder to lean on or cry on when it matters most is  _ vital _ to surviving the harsh world we live in,” Oscar said, a meaningful tone in his voice. “Besides, in our profession, a lone wolf is a dead wolf. I mean, why else would the Huntsman Academies set their students up in four-man or the occasional five-man or six-man teams like they do?”

“Hmm…” muttered Yang as she pondered Oscar’s words before she turned to her younger half-sister. “You know something, Ruby? Maybe you should be on a team with Oscar. Not only would you get to spend more time with your first boyfriend, but he could really be a huge help for you in breaking out of your shell."

The results were instantaneous. Both Oscar and Ruby had turned the same shade of red as the latter’s cape as they both instinctively took a large step away from each other.

“What are-how-did-wh-where did you get that idea from?! I told you yesterday,Yang, th-there’s nothing between Ruby and me!” Oscar stammered in protest.

"Y-yeah! And besides, I don't need to break out of my shell! That's absolutely-" Ruby snapped, getting completely flustered alongside Oscar before another familiar voice caught the young time traveller’s attention.

"Ridiculous! There's no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday! I would've remembered having to count that high. Ugh, why does this have to happen today?!" moaned Jaune Arc as he passed by the three of them while studying a sheet of paper that he had written his locker number down on.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, and quite honestly thankful for the distraction, Oscar made his way over to Jaune and cleared his throat. “Hey, Jaune, I think you might be looking for locker 36 in aisle six. See the little dash there?”

“Oh! That makes more sense. I didn’t see the dash there because of the smudge. Thanks, Oscar,” said Jaune before he and Oscar saw Weiss Schnee talking with Pyrrha Nikos nearby.

"So, Pyrrha, have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well-known individual such as yourself!" said Weiss in what was clearly an attempt to flatter the champion in an attempt to endear herself to the redhead.

“"Hmm… I'm not quite sure, I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may,” replied Pyrrha, uncertainty in her voice.

"Well… I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together!” suggested Weiss.

"Well, that sounds grand!" said Pyrrha.

"Great!" said Weiss before she turned on her heel. Once she was facing away from Pyrrha, Weiss quickly adopted an expression befitting of a supervillain.

_ This will be perfect! The smartest girl in class combined with the strongest girl in class! Together, we will be unstoppable! _ thought Weiss, her perfect plan coming together quite nicely in her mind.  _ I can see it now: we’ll be popular, we’ll be celebrities, we’ll get perfect grades! Nothing can come between us now! _

Weiss was quickly pulled out of her plotting, planning, and scheming by a male voice from nearby, causing Weiss to turn towards the source of the voice. 

“You know what else is great? Me, Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you,” said Jaune Arc as he leaned up against the side of a nearby locker.

“Now, now, Jaune, it's not polite to interrupt people while they’re plotting to hitchhike a ride on someone else’s coattails,” Oscar said, shooting Weiss a knowing smirk as he walked up to them.

“Ugh, you again?” Weiss groaned at Oscar, dropping her nice girl facade for her usual stuck-up snotty brat attitude.

“Oh, hello again, Jaune! Nice to see you!” Pyrrha said excitedly with an eager grin on her face.

Jaune, however, took no notice of Pyrrha’s enthusiasm and simply kept his attention on the heiress. “So, Weiss, been hearing rumors about teams. I was thinking you and me would make a good one. What do you say?”

“Actually, Jaune, I think the teams are usually comprised of four students each,” said Pyrrha, adding in her own two cents.

“Well, you don’t say? Well, hot stuff, play your cards right, and maybe you can join up with the winning team,” Jaune declared proudly, causing Pyrrha to smile.

“Oh, really, is that so?” Oscar said, a smirk on his face as he twirled  _ The Long Memory _ . “Hate to break it to you, but  _ my _ team is the winning team. Just wait until you see me in action, and you’ll see.”

Weiss, however, had seen more than enough on her end. “Jaune and… Oswald, is it?” the heiress said, irritation evident in both her voice and on her face.

“Oscar, actually. Oscar Pine,” Oscar replied, a hint of irritation of his own in his voice.

“Right, whatever. Anyways, do either of you have any idea who this is? This is Pyrrha Nikos," said Weiss, introducing the redhead beside her.

“Hello again!” Pyrrha said cheerfully as she waved at both Jaune and Oscar.

“I know that already, Snow Angel. I met her yesterday during the Welcoming Ceremony,” replied Jaune, smiling as she spoke.

“And considering that I’m from Mistral myself, I’d have to have been living under a rock not to know who Pyrrha Nikos is, or at least have heard about her victories, skill, and beauty," Oscar said matter-of-factly.

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum," revealed Weiss, ignoring Jaune’s attempt at giving her a pet name. Apparently, the heiress was under the impression that she would have to do all of Pyrrha’s bragging on the redhead’s behalf.

“So?” said Oscar, sounding as though Pyrrha’s academic accomplishments were nothing special.

"Never heard of it," replied Jaune with a shrug, a friendly smile still plastered on his face.

"Ah! She's won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row! A new record," said Weiss, starting to get irritated with all of the non-reactions that she was getting from the two.

"And your point is?" replied Oscar, still sounding thoroughly unimpressed by Pyrrha’s accomplishments.

"The what?" asked Jaune, starting to get confused by what Weiss was talking about.

Finally reaching her wits end at both boys’ responses, Weiss spat out the one thing that she hoped would get  _ some  _ form of reaction that she had been hoping for. "She's on the front of every  _ Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes _ box!"

Suddenly, it clicked with Jaune just who Pyrrha was and what Weiss was trying to get at.  _ "That's you?!  _ They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!" he exclaimed in excitement.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool," Pyrrha admitted with an embarrassed smile that quickly changed into a downcast expression. “Sadly, the cereal isn't very good for you."

"How many cereals are, with all the sugar, processed by-products and preservatives they have in them? More importantly, _ that's _ the thing that helps you recognize her? Really?” asked Oscar as he turned to look at Jaune with his eyebrow raised.

“As much as I loathe admitting it, I must agree with you on that,” Weiss said to Oscar before returning her attention to Jaune. “Regardless, after hearing all of this, do you  _ really _ think you're in a position to ask her to be on your team?"

"I guess not. Sorry," said Jaune, his earlier display of confidence completely shattered.

"Wouldn't stop me,” Oscar said with a shrug. "To be honest, I don't really care about a person's titles and accomplishments. I mean, they're pretty cool, sure, and it's alright to be proud of them or admire someone for those accomplishments, but, honestly speaking, I’m more interested in the person themselves rather than what they can do or have done. And besides, in my opinion, wealth, fame, and fortune is highly overrated, and ultimately not very rewarding."

“That’s… actually very noble of you,” complimented Pyrrha with a small nod. “And actually, Jaune, I think you would make a great leader.”

“Oh, stop it,” said Jaune, a playful sort of embarrassment in his voice.

"Seriously, please stop it. This kind of behavior should not be encouraged,” said Weiss as she rubbed her hand against her forehead in irritation.

"Sounds like Pyrrha's on board for Team Jaune. Spots are filling up quick,” Jaune told Weiss, causing Oscar to promptly turn around and slam his head against the wall, knowing that there was nothing he could do to save this disaster now as Jaune was really starting to invade Weiss’ personal space. "Now, I'm not supposed to do this, but maybe I could pull some strings. Find a place for you. What do you say?"

“Okay, that’s a bit too close!” said Weiss as she started to back away from Jaune. “Pyrrha, a little help please!”

Her battle instincts kicking into high gear almost immediately, Pyrrha pulled out her javelin,  _ Milo _ , and threw it at Jaune, pinning him against a nearby wall by the hood of his hoodie.

“I’m sorry!” apologized Pyrrha, who looked a little concerned for Jaune.

_ “Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for Initiation? Again, would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff immediately,” _ said Glynda Goodwitch’s voice over the school announcement system.

Almost instantly, everyone else in the locker room began to gather up their weapons and other pieces of equipment before making their way towards what seemed to be the staging grounds for their Initiation exam.

"It was nice seeing you again, Jaune,” said Pyrrha as she retrieved  _ Milo _ , allowing the poor blonde knight to slide down the wall.

"Likewise," groaned Jaune, feeling and sounding completely dejected as he landed on the ground.

"Having trouble there, Ladykiller?” asked Yang as she and Ruby walked over to Jaune, the latter holding out her hand to help him up.

"I don't understand. My dad said all women look for is confidence. Where did I go wrong?" asked Jaune as Ruby helped him up.

“Well, honestly speaking, giving her a pet name like ‘Snow Angel,’ or honestly any pet name in general, was probably a little too forward too soon,” Oscar said, a knowing look on his face as he spoke. “Besides, you can’t fake confidence by acting all smooth and suave like that. If you want to actually have a relationship with someone, then you need to have genuine confidence in yourself rather than putting on an act, and that means that you need to accept that you do have a few weak points as well as strong points. Beyond that, however, trust me when I say that Weiss Schnee isn’t your type. Anyways, enough about relationship advice, I believe that we have an appointment at Beacon Cliff. Shall we?”

_ Beacon Cliff-A Short While Later… _

When the first year students arrived at the cliff, they were directed over to a line of metal pads and instructed to stand upon them. While Oscar had a pretty good idea as to what these metal pads actually were, Ruby, Yang, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Pyrrha, and the other first years were less than certain on how exactly that was supposed to help show that they were ready to become students at Beacon, but ultimately didn’t decide to question it too much and instead decided to listen to the instructions that Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch had for them.

“For years, you have trained to become warriors-” Ozpin began.

_ Most of us have, anyways, _ thought Oscar, casting a glance over at Jaune.  _ Then again… who am I to talk? I spent most of my life on a farm in Mistral before Ozpin showed up and dragged me into his war by being his new reincarnation. _

“-and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest,” Ozpin concluded before Goodwitch spoke up.

“Now, I’m sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion,” Goodwitch said as she gazed upon the gathered first years. “Each of you will be given teammates… today.”

“What? Aw…” whined Ruby, worry evident in her voice, while some of the other first years began to grow a little bit more worried themselves.

“These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to find someone with whom you can work well,” Ozpin said, picking up from where Professor Goodwitch left off, unknowingly drawing another scared whimper from Ruby. “That being said, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four years.”

It was at this moment where Ruby felt like her entire world shattered like glass as she let out a scared and high pitch whimper of  _ “Whaaat?!” _

“See? I told you,” a hyperactive redhead that Oscar immediately recognized as Nora Valkyrie said to a boy that Oscar just as quickly recognized as her closest friend and eventual fiance, Lie Ren. A small smile crossed Oscar’s face as he looked at them. Their relationship had been through some challenges leading up to their eventual death at the hands of Cinder Fall, especially after what went down in Atlas after Winter had acquired the powers of the Maiden with whom she shared her namesake, mostly thanks to Neopolitan in her misguided quest for vengeance against Ruby for Torchwick’s death. Thankfully, they had managed to work things out in the end. 

Honestly speaking, their engagement party held just a few weeks before their final showdown with Cinder and Salem was one of the happiest memories that Oscar had made that  _ didn’t _ have anything to do with his girlfriend, Ruby Rose.

The very next second, a pained grimace crossed Oscar’s face as he recalled how Ren and Nora had died. Their Auras had both been wiped out and Cinder fired a blast intended to finish off Nora, only for Ren to use his body as a meat shield to protect her with his life. Unfortunately, the blast had ended up killing both Ren and Nora, both of whom succumbed to their injuries in the other’s arms.

Oscar forcefully pulled himself out of his memories in order to focus on Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch’s address to their students. This wasn’t the time to become consumed by the memories of the tragedies he had witnessed, not when he was about to make the first steps towards rewriting history in the hopes of preventing them in the first place.

“Additionally, as we have an odd number of new students undergoing Initiation this year, we will at least have one five-man team this year. Therefore in the event that you have already found a partner, should you and your partner encounter someone who hasn't found a partner of their own, then they will be a part of your team for the next four years as well,” Ozpin continued. 

“After you have partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die. You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. You and your partner or partners must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?” Ozpin asked his students, concluding his instructions.

“Yeah, um, sir-” Jaune asked as he raised his hand to ask his question, only for Ozpin to cut him off.

“Good! Now then, take your positions,” said Ozpin.

As one, the gathered first year students drew their weapons and entered into a starting stance, with Oscar following suit with  _ The Long Memory _ before closing his eyes and tuning out the world while recalling the technique that Lie Ren had taught him so long ago to synchronize and become in-tune with his Aura.

_ “Think of Aura like a heartbeat. Beating at a series of intervals, calm and steady in a successful, yet rapid pace.” _

Oscar couldn’t help but shudder as a shroud of light as green as the trees in the forest below encompassed his body. Although he had improved by leaps and bounds with the usage of his Aura in the eighteen months or so that had passed since he had joined up with Team RNJR through the practice of meditation, sparring, and of course, he tried-and-true method of learning on-the-fly during a desperate fight for his life, Oscar still hadn’t gotten used to the feeling it gave him, as though a film of ice-cold water had soaked his skin, causing every nerve in his body to tingle with pleasure delight.

As Oscar opened his eyes again, his fellow classmates were already being launched into the air by the springboards they had been standing on, even as Jaune kept asking questions that even the dumbest Huntsman to ever walk the face of Remnant should know the answers to. As the other students were being launched, Yang and Ruby looked over at Oscar with bright smiles on their faces. Yang winked at Oscar and put on a pair of aviator shades before she was flung through the air, while Ruby, whose smile made Oscar’s heart skip a beat or two, mouthed the words “Good luck,” before being launched.

“So, what exactly is a landing strateGYYYYYYY?!” yelled Jaune as the springboard he was on launched him, flailing and screaming, through the air and into the forest below.

Oscar looked at Ozpin with a smirk on his face. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Oscar asked the Headmaster.

“I admit nothing, Mr. Pine,” Ozpin said, although Oscar could clearly see the traces of an amused smile on the Wizard’s face. Apart from that, though…

“You don’t have to,” said Oscar before he was launched into the air himself, just in time to hear Ruby let out a cry that sounded like “BIRDIE! NO!”

_ Huh?  _ thought Oscar as he looked in the direction Ruby’s voice had come from to see the a bird not dissimilar to the ones two particular warriors were able to take the form of struggling to remain airborne and recover from the human projectile that crashed into it, although he wasn’t certain which one it was from his perspective.

_ Is Qrow here already? Then again, it might be Raven too… _ thought Oscar. Despite all appearances and the fact that she wouldn’t be caught dead admitting it, Oscar knew for a fact that Raven Branwen very much cared for and loved her daughter, given that she, in the form of the avian whose namesake she shared, kept an eye on Yang whenever she went out asking for information on her, and the fact that it was Yang who inherited her powers as the Spring Maiden after her death in a glorious last stand. Part of Oscar wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t found out the truth behind Ozpin and Salem. Would she have stayed and lived with Mr. Xiao Long and their daughter? Would Ruby have even been  _ born _ if she had? Then again, Oscar had heard his fair share of gossip and rumors regarding Qrow Branwen being Ruby’s real father instead of Taiyang. All of them untrue and bogus, of course, although given the usual drunken state the man was in, plus his perpetual Bad Luck Semblance, he wouldn’t be surprised if Qrow had a kid or two that he didn’t know about out there somewhere.

Oscar quickly pulled himself out of his thoughts. Speculation made for a wonderful mental exercise, but now wasn’t the time for that. He had a landing to stick and a future to rewrite.

Pressing a button on  _ The Long Memory _ , Oscar activated the grapple claw he had arranged to be built into it. As the ground rushed to meet him, the teenage time traveller waited until just the right moment before firing the grapple at a particularly sturdy-looking tree branch and swung from it as though it were a vine in a tropical rainforest. Once the arc of his swing had hit just the right point, Oscar disengaged the grapple, flipped through the air not unlike how Ozpin had when he had been in the driver's seat of his body when he met Team RNJR, and landed firmly on his feet.

"And he sticks the landing!" Oscar said with a proud smile as he dusted himself off.

Before Oscar could do anything else, however, he was promptly knocked to the ground and pinned down by something very fast, very solid, and very red.

_ A Few Minutes Earlier… _

“BIRDIE! NO!” cried Ruby as she crashed headlong into what seemed to be a raven minding its own business as she sailed through the air, using  _ Crescent Rose _ ’s rifle function in order to navigate through the skies she was hurling through before swiftly changing it to its scythe form and using it to swing through the trees, pulling off an elegant backflip before she stuck the landing on the ground below.

Taking only a moment to catch her breath, Ruby quickly pulled herself onto her feet and sped off through the forest with her Semblance-enhanced speeds, rose petals falling behind her in her wake.

_ Gotta find Yang! Gotta find Yang! Gotta find Yang! Gotta find… _ thought Ruby before she started calling out for her sister aloud, only for her to get no response.  _ Oh, this is bad! This is really bad! Oh, what if I can’t find her? What if someone else finds her first? There’s always Jaune… he’s nice. He’s funny! But, I don’t think he’s very good in a fight though… Oh! What about Blake? So mysterious… so calm… plus she likes books! Then again, I’m not sure I’d be able to hold a conversation with her… ugh, okay, who else do I know in this school? There’s Yang, Jaune, Blake, and… _

The very next moment however, Ruby was quickly pulled out of her thoughts when she collided into someone, sending the both of them sprawling to the ground. A moment later, Ruby realized that she had crashed headlong into Oscar Pine. For a moment that somehow seemed to last the two of them simply stared into the other eyes, the both of them having a small, gentle smile on their faces.

As Ruby gazed into Oscar's green eyes with their flecks of gold, she began to become lost within them, as they reminded her of a beautiful forest at the last trace sunset, untouched by humans, Faunus, and Creatures of the Grimm alike, populated only by fireflies and small woodland critters, like squirrels, chipmunks, beavers and the like. The very epitome of the untouched beauty and serenity of nature, something that even the best Scripture screensaver in existence could only imitate, but never truly capture or replicate.

As Ruby lost herself in Oscar's beautiful green and gold pools of pure, unblemished nature and serenity, she began to feel an… unusual feeling within herself, something that she couldn't really explain, but it was there nonetheless.

Oscar, meanwhile, as much as he enjoyed losing himself in those wondering, sparkling, shimmering pools of diamonds, light, unearthly beauty, and raw unyielding power that Ruby Rose called her eyes, he knew that there was something more important at hand right now than his and Ruby's secret staring contest.

Clearing his throat, Oscar spoke to the younger counterpart of his former girlfriend and lover. "Uh… Ruby? You mind, ah… letting me up?"

"Huh, wha?" said Ruby, coming back down to Remnant from the trance Oscar's eyes had put her under. A moment later, the red reaper quickly realized that Oscar was currently beneath her in an… unflattering position. “Omigosh, Oscar! I-I’m so sorry!” Ruby quickly apologized, turning as red as her cloak as she scrambled to her feet and allowing Oscar to get up.

Oscar, who was about the same shade of red as Ruby, quickly started stammering his own apology as he started to rise to his feet. "N-no, no Ruby, it's fine, I-I should've been paying more attention to my surroundings-" Oscar stammered only for both him and Ruby to fall over again, this time with him on top of Ruby, causing the both of them to immediately turn an even brighter shade of red and begin to feel as though their faces were on fire.

"Ugh! For crying out loud, you dolts! We're in the middle of our Initiation exam! This is  _ most certainly _ not the time or the place for love on the battlefield!" a familiar female voice said from nearby.

Oscar and Ruby looked towards the source of the voice and found Weiss Schnee standing nearby with a very disapproving and almost livid expression on her face as she looked at the two fifteen year-olds.

Faster than blinking, both Ruby and Oscar were standing up right, now beet red from a completely different type of embarrassment.

"I-I swear, this is  _ not _ what it looked like! T-there's nothing between Ruby and me!" Oscar stammered.

"Y-yeah! I wasn't looking where I was going, and crashed into Oscar and ended up on top of him-" Ruby stammered.

"An-and then we got up and tripped and I ended on top of her-" Oscar added on.

Weiss, for her part, did  _ not _ give the slightest flying curly-whirly whether or not the position she had found the two dolts in was what it had looked like or not, and she had no time to listen to the two of them try to explain themselves, so she simply turned on her heel and began marching off in the opposite direction.

"Hey, wait! Where are you going?!" Ruby called after Weiss as the heiress continued storming away. "The three of us are supposed to be teammates…" she said sadly.

Oscar patted Ruby on the shoulder. "Oh, don't worry about her, Ruby… to be honest, I give her about, oh… thirty seconds before she comes right back to us," he said confidently.

Ruby looked up at Oscar, trying to focus on his nose instead of his eyes so she wouldn't get lost in them again. "What makes you so sure?" she asked the taller boy.

Oscar said nothing, but instead pointed his cane off towards the distance. Looking in the direction Oscar was indicating, Ruby saw that the white-clad heiress was standing in front of what seemed to be a completely random tree. Upon closer inspection, it looked as though Jaune Arc was hanging from the tree by the hood of the sweatshirt he wore underneath his armor, pinned by what looked suspiciously like that redheaded girl's javelin. 

After a few moments, Weiss promptly turned on her heel and made her way back towards Ruby and Oscar, her expression indicating that, although she felt as though being their third teammate was the lesser of two evils, she was  _ far _ from happy about it.

"By no means does this make the three of us friends," Weiss told Oscar and Ruby before she grabbed ahold of the latter's hood and started dragging her off with Oscar following right behind them.

"YOU CAME BACK!" Ruby squealed happily as she threw her arms up into the air.

Oscar chuckled as he followed the heiress and the red reaper. "Well, you see, about that… considering that this pretty much makes us a team now, and that we have four years of living, studying, learning, and fighting together…"  _ Hopefully _ , he added in his mind before speaking aloud again. "Well… never say never."

Weiss thought about what Oscar said for a moment. As much as she hated to admit it, he did have a point. While she and the sickeningly upbeat dolt whom she was dragging along by her hood at the moment were currently getting along about as well as the White Fang and the SDC, they  _ did _ have to put up with each other for four years during their time at Beacon. And she knew how much could happen in such a short time… with her mother, after one too many fights with her father, having up and decided to spend most of her time either in bed or sitting in one of the mansion's studys, wasting away in a drunken stupor thanks to whatever she happened to find first in the wine cellar half way through her second year of Intermediate Education.

"Fair enough," Weiss eventually admitted, her voice barely above a mutter.

_ Meanwhile… _

It was fortunate that the human cubs did not know that they were being watched. 

With barely concealed anticipation, it and its pack followed the small pack of human cubs as they made their way through the forest. No doubt they were from the massive den on the top of the cliff, and were for their rite of passage. So many of its pack had been lost both during and in what seemed to be preparation for the human cub's rite of passage on what seemed to be a regular basis. Even its brethren were slaughtered by hundreds when the time for the human's rite drew near. In fact, the Elder in the cave was the last of his kind.

The red cub removed itself from the grip of the white one, before it moved faster than it could blink, leaving red flower petals in its wake.

When the red cub returned in another burst of flower petals and began talking to the white cub and the unusual green cub, that was when it saw…  _ them. _

The Silver Eyes.

While it could tell that the red human cub's true power still slumbered, those eyes were the mark of only one thing. The thing that even their Queen, Mother Salem, feared the most.

Those eyes were the Mark of Death. The Grimm Reaper.

When the Reaper cub dashed off in a burst of flower petals again, it took off in pursuit, giving orders to the rest of its pack to keep the white and green cubs from helping the Reaper cub, while it dealt with the Reaper.

Reaper or not, the cub was still just that: a cub.

And it was an Alpha.

_ Back With Oscar, Weiss, and Ruby… _

"You may be fast, but you still excel at wasting time!" Weiss called after Ruby as the red clad girl darted off again.

"Weiss… do me a really big favor, and I know it must be difficult for you, but please, relax, and lighten up," Oscar said, rubbing the bridge of his nose

"Relax?!" Weiss snapped at Oscar turning on her heel and glaring at him. "How can you say that?! This is our Initiation into one of if not  _ the _ most single prestigious academy on the face of Remnant! How can you tell me to relax when-"

The rest of Weiss' rant was cut off, however, by the sound of a very familiar, and very terrified, scream.

"RUBY!" Oscar and Weiss shouted at the same time before taking off in the direction the scream had sounded like it had come from, only to find themselves immediately surrounded by Beowolves the moment that they had arrived in the forest clearing where it sounded like Ruby had screamed from, forcing Oscar and the heiress to stand back-to-back with each other. At the moment, however, the Grimm seemed more interested in keeping them at bay than attacking them.

"What the- we're trapped!" Oscar cried out.

"We need to stay focused and find Ruby! And when we do, I swear to Oum Almighty she will never hear the end of this…" said Weiss as she held  _ Myrtenaster _ at the ready.

Looking wildly around, Oscar quickly found where Ruby was. And almost instantly felt his blood boil to the point where it could probably melt a hole clean through Atlas if it shed.

In a testament to how durable the weapon was, and perhaps aided by Ruby most likely using her Aura in a desperate bid to increase her physical strength, the red reaper was using the shaft of  _ Crescent Rose _ to keep the jaws of an Alpha Beowolf from making her a chew toy, evidently it was going after her because of her Silver Eyes. But, that wasn't what was making Oscar's blood boil.

It was the fear in Ruby's eyes.

Oscar had only seen Ruby's eyes show that kind of fear once before…

_ Salem's Castle-After The Final Battle _

_ He didn't know what just happened. He didn't know how it happened. But, Ozma's soul had somehow been assimilated into his own, rather than his becoming another piece of Ozma's. _

_ After over a year and a half of slowly losing himself and his identity to the Warrior King of Vale, he was finally just Oscar Galeius Pine again, small comfort that it was, as he lay bleeding from a fatal wound to his chest. _

_ "O-Oscar…?" _

_ Oscar, with what little strength he had, crawled his way over to his girlfriend, Ruby Rose, the Maiden of the Four Seasons, and finally collapsed by her. _

_ Ruby had grown into a beautiful young woman after all she had been through. The Battle of Beacon and the Reclamation of Beacon, the Battle of Atlas, the Skyfall Event, among many others… she deserved to live a normal life after all of this, happily ever after like the heroes in the books she had read so long ago… _

_ She didn't deserve to die so young… _

_ Ruby turned her head to look at Oscar, who became alarmed by the fear in her tear-soaked silver eyes that were quickly becoming a dull gray as she looked at him… she was afraid to die… _

_ "Is… is it you, Oscar?" Ruby asked, her voice cracked and weak. _

_ "Yeah, honey… yeah… Ozpin's gone. I mean, I'm not dead quite yet, so he can't be looking for another host… I guess the assimilation backfired somehow…" Oscar said. _

_ "Good… I'm glad… so… we did it, huh? Salem and Ozma are gone… we saved the world…" Ruby whispered. _

_ "Yeah… I guess we did… too bad we couldn't save ourselves along with it…" said Oscar. _

_ "Don't say that, Oscar…" Ruby somewhat shouted, but mostly sobbed. "I'm so scared, Oscar… please, don't make me feel even more scared than I already am…" _

_ "I'm sorry…" said Oscar. _

_ "I love you, Oscar… I love you so much…" sobbed Ruby as she leaned towards Oscar and kissed him one last time…. before the life left her body with an empty sigh. _

_ Oscar used the last traces of his strength to place his head on Ruby's chest and hold her close. _

_ "I love you too… Ruby… Rose…" _

_ Emerald Forest-Initiation Exam _

Oscar forcefully pulled himself out of the memory of his and Ruby's last moments. His Aura was raging around him, as though he was being consumed by a bright green fire of some kind while his hair and clothes blew about as though he was caught in a gale force wind. The Grimm surrounding himself and Weiss were beginning to grow restless, as though the fifteen-year old boy was becoming an even greater threat than the Silver Eyes, all of which were things that the Schnee heiress was picking up on.

But, before Weiss could question him on it, something completely unexpected happened.

**_"GET… AWAY...FROM… HER… YOU… BASTARDS!"_ ** Oscar roared at the top of his lungs before he slammed the end of  _ The Long Memory  _ into the ground, causing a large green shockwave crackling with bolts of green lightning to burst from it, sending the Grimm surrounding himself and Weiss, along with the Schnee heiress herself, flying several feet away from him, and garnering him the attention of the entire Beowolf pack, their Alpha included, allowing Ruby an opportunity to get up and get her wits about her once again.

As one, the Creatures of Grimm began to move towards Oscar, the teenager cracked his neck. Clearly, they recognized the presence he carried within himself: their most hated enemy, the Ancient Warrior-King of Vale, Ozma.

With a loud howl and a throng of snarling fangs and razor-sharp claws the pack of Beowolves rushed at Oscar, eager to spill his blood and tear him to pieces. Two of the Beowolves reached Oscar first and lunged at him.

Just before the Beowolves could attempt to sink their claws into Oscar, a shimmering green analog clock not dissimilar to one of Weiss' glyphs appeared directly underneath him, the minute hand spinning counter-clockwise. As it did, cogs began to spin in Oscar's own peripheral vision in the same pattern, and as they spun, the world began to slow down around Oscar, almost coming to a complete stand-still.

This was one of the three functions of his Chronokinesis Semblance, which he called Clockwork: the ability to slow down time for improved reaction times and allowing him to land heavy, precise blows capable of leveling a small building. Of course, regardless of which function of Clockwork he was using, to everyone else not sharing the benefits of his Semblance, he just looked like a spectral blur of green energy.

As the Semblance began to take full effect, Oscar felt his muscles tense as his strength increased. Acting quickly, Oscar side-stepped out of the Beowolves lunge and rammed his cane through the back of one of Beowolves before decking the second with a mighty swing of  _ The Long Memory. _

As time returned to normal, the impaled Grimm vanished in a wisp of black smoke, while the other one fell to the ground in a tumbling mess. The immediate threats dealt with, Oscar made a beeline for the Alpha Beowolf, as its death would demoralize the rest of the pack, making them much easier to deal with. As he raced towards the Alpha, cogs appeared once again in Oscar's peripheral vision, this time spinning in a clockwise pattern as he triggered the second function of Clockwork: accelerating time, an ability that granted him pseudo-superhuman speeds, making him very difficult to hit and allowing him to perform a series of rapid-fire blows with his cane faster than his opponent could react, wearing down a particularly stubborn enemy enough for a stronger attack.

As Oscar unleashed a series of rapid-fire blows on the Alpha Beowolf, Ruby, who had finally regained her bearings, couldn't help but stare at the blistering speeds the green blur that was Oscar Pine was moving, dodging, and fighting. True, Ruby had a rather high opinion of herself and her own abilities on the battlefield, but Oscar was clearly leaps, bounds, and  _ miles _ ahead of herself.

"Ugh! Don't just stand there, you dolt! Help me take care of the rest of these Beowolves while Oscar keeps the Alpha busy!" snapped Weiss as she prepared to do battle with the lesser Grimm, who were waiting for an opening to pounce on Oscar.

Ruby shook her head, clearing her thoughts "R-right!" the red reaper replied as she went to go help the heiress deal with the rest of the Beowolf pack.

_ Meanwhile, Back On Beacon Cliff… _

Glynda couldn't believe her eyes as she watched the live feed of Oscar Pine, Ruby Rose, and Weiss Schnee do battle with a pack of Beowolves and their Alpha. The way Pine fought… the way he  _ moved _ … and most importantly, that cane, that Semblance, and how he used them both…

If it weren't for the fact that the man himself was right next to her… Goodwitch would have  _ sworn _ he was the reincarnation of Ozpin.

"Sir," Goodwitch finally said. "I… I know you said that Mr. Pine was a time traveller who was sent back in time by the same god who cursed you with constant reincarnation in order to change the course of the future, but… who is he? Really, I mean?"

Ozpin's face showed no emotion as he replied to his deputy headmistress. "I would have thought that'd be obvious, Glynda. He uses an upgraded version of my cane for his weapon, his Aura, Semblance, and combat style are the exact same as those used by myself," he said. "And… he knows my name. My real name. A name that I haven't heard nor used in a long time, not since before my first reincarnation many eons ago…"

Glynda frowned, her eyes growing sad as she looked back at the feed. "Too young… he is far too young to be carrying that sort of burden…" she said, sadness in her voice.

"I know," Ozpin replied sadly. "By the Gods, do I know…"

The God of Light had told him that every time he died he would reincarnate into a "like-minded soul." It hadn't been until he met Oscar that it had occurred to him just how…  _ vague _ … that description had been. Every other host he had been reborn into, whether their souls fused together or not, had been a full grown adult. Never, in the many millennia and eons worth of lives in which he had walked the face of Remnant, would he have thought a mere boy would become his next, and apparently final, reincarnation.

But, there was something else too: Oscar's reaction to seeing Ruby Rose pinned down by the Alpha Beowolf. It brought to mind what Oscar had told him the other night at the police station.

_ "Let's just say that love is the most powerful emotion, and that makes it the most dangerous." _

When he had been crafting Oscar's false documents and identity, Ozpin had grown curious on if there was in fact a version of Oscar in this timeline, and from what Ozpin had been able to discern from Oscar's thirteen year old counterpart, not only did he fit the bill for the "like-minded soul" that Ozpin had been cursed to reincarnate into upon his death, be it timely or untimely, but that soul was the exact same type of smaller, more honest soul that Miss Rose was…

Needless to say, Ozpin was very, very interested in what sort of new, better future Oscar Pine and his apparent future lover, Ruby Rose, would create for the World of Remnant together.

_ Then again, _ Ozpin thought to himself as he continued to watch the feed.  _ Only the twin gods can truly know that… _

_ Meanwhile, in the Beacon Academy Auditorium… _

The collective jaws of the upperclassmen of Beacon Academy were currently on the floor at the sight of the three First Years waging war against a pack of Beowolves, with the boy in the olive coat, who looked to be about the same age as the girl in the red cloak,  _ single-handedly _ taking on an Alpha Beowolf.

_ And winning. _

Needless to say, they were all  _ beyond _ impressed by the little pipsqueak.

"Greenie's got some moooooooo-ooooves!" said Coco Adel, leader of Team CFVY, who had lowered her sunglasses and gave the monitors showing the three First Years her trademark smirk.

Next to Coco, one of her teammates, a rabbit Faunus by the name of Velvet Scarlatina, heaved an unhappy sigh. "I just wish I could get a shot of them…" she said unhappily. Sadly, her camera and therefore her Semblance didn't work quite as well with pictures taken from monitors, which is to say, not at all.

"Don't worry, Velvet. I'm sure you'll get a chance before long," Coco reassured her teammate.

_ Back With Oscar, Ruby, and Weiss… _

Oscar continued to each attack the Alpha threw at him while he delivered several of this own. Meanwhile, Ruby and Weiss were engaged with the lesser members of the pack, fighting valiantly to keep them off of Oscar's back while he dealt with the Alpha. However, thanks to a botched attack on the part of Weiss due to Ruby attacking a Beowolf right as the heiress was about to attack it herself, the clearing they were waging war within had been set ablaze, causing a burning tree to fall amongst the combatants.

_ If this fight keeps going on for too long… _ thought Oscar as he evaded another swipe from the Beowolf.  _ The ashes from the fire and the carbon from the smoke will make it harder and harder to breathe, and that in turn will affect our performance, and that's not good. We need to finish this quickly! _

The Alpha Beowolf swung its claw down, forcing Oscar to side-step out of the way of the beast's attack. Switching his cane to his other hand, Oscar used Clockwork to speed up time again and unleash another a blitz of strikes, each blow faster, stronger, and far more brutal than the last as he danced around and forced the Alpha Beowolf at impossible speeds while the Creature of Grimm tried to weakly retaliate with half-hearted swings of its claws and snaps of its fangs, and with each attempt, Oscar would use his Semblance to manipulate time and deliver an even harsher beatdown.

Thanks to the vicious attacks he had administered to it, it wasn't long before Oscar had the Alpha standing on its last legs. Mustering what little strength it had left, it tried to pounce on Oscar, hoping to pin him down and bite off his head. As the beast lunged for him, Oscar channeled his Semblance once again and slowed down time before swinging  _ The Long Memory  _ with all his might, cleaving the Alpha Beowolf in two. 

As the halves rolled on the ground, Oscar looked back to see that Ruby and Weiss had finished off the rest of their enemies. With a curt nod, a simple message was shared between the three warriors: get the heck out of there. 

And with that message passed along, Oscar, Ruby, and Weiss took off running as fast as they could until they had made it safely out of the burning clearing. When they had put a sufficient amount of distance between themselves and the burning clearing, Oscar let out a heavy sigh of relief and turned and found Ruby and Weiss looking at him, the latter's gaze sharp and scrutinizing, which Oscar couldn't help but chuckle at.

_ Even during her tenure at Beacon before it went bye-bye, Weiss Schnee was already an Ice Queen, _ thought Oscar, amused by how similar this version of Weiss was to the one he had met back in his timeline… although, Neptune certainly helped with thawing her out from what he had seen in his timeline.

"THAT. WAS. AWESOME, OSCAR!" Ruby squealed excitedly as she ran up to the green clad boy. "I mean, I thought  _ I _ was fast with my Semblance, but you… you were just a green blur of energy and awesomeness and butt-kicking!"

"No, no, Ruby, I think you're still faster than me by a long shot," Oscar said , chuckling as he waved Ruby down. "Besides, my Clockwork isn't like your superhuman speed Semblance. It isn't a super-speed Semblance at all, actually…"

"What exactly is this 'Clockwork' Semblance of yours, then? And what was going on with your Aura, in any case? I've never seen anyone's Aura do anything even  _ remotely _ similar to what yours did. It almost looked like you were about to enter one of those super-powered transformations from one of those barbaric Mistalian cartoons, oh, what were they called again? Anna-May?" Weiss said, her gaze seeming to grow pondering for a moment.

Oscar chuckled. He had fond memories of those shows back when he was travelling with Team RWBY and the others, namely the one with that magic rock that turned metal into gold and granted immortality… something alchemy, he vaguely remembered it being called…

Although… now that he thought about, two of the characters kinda sounded like Qrow Branwen and himself. Trippy in hindsight, but ultimately irrelevant.

"Yeah, I get that a lot, actually. It happens sometimes when I get angry, or when I wanna intimidate something or someone," Oscar said. "As for what my Semblance actually is… it's chronokinesis."

Ruby and Weiss looked at each other for a few moments, blinked a few times, before they looked back at Oscar and said the exact same thing.

"Gesundheit."

Oscar chuckled again. "It means I can control time itself," he revealed, causing both girl's jaws to drop like a sack of concrete.

"You… can control time? That is… I… I have no words… but, I can see why the Headmaster decided to let you into Beacon two years early…" Weiss said, amazed that someone so young could properly wield and use such a tremendous power, let alone to the level of effectiveness and skill that Oscar had demonstrated.

Ruby, meanwhile, simply went starry-eyed with amazement and awe. "Cool…" she whispered.

"Yeah, it is pretty cool," Oscar admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "With Clockwork, I can slow down time to increase my reaction times and enhance the strength of my attacks or speed it up to give myself pseudo-superhuman speeds and unleash a flurry of attacks to wear down a tougher foe before finishing them off with a stronger attack."

"Awesome…" Ruby whispered while Weiss rubbed her temples as the information Oscar was giving them continued to sink in.

"If you think that's awesome, wait until you hear what I can do with it outside of direct combat, when I don't have to focus on the fight," Oscar said with a proud smirk. "Outside of combat, I can use my Semblance to literally make time stand still, and bring it to a complete and utter stop."

"Whoaaaaaa…" Ruby said, her silver eyes shining brighter than the stars themselves before Weiss cleared her throat, apparently having regained her composure.

"I… I can see why you said your team would be the winning team back in the locker rooms… and I'm honored to be a part of it," Weiss said with a curt nod and a respectful bow before she turned to face Ruby, a look of sheer, overwhelming anger crossing her face. "As for you, Ruby…"

_ Oh, boy, this isn't gonna end well, _ thought Oscar, bracing himself for what was coming.

"What were you doing back there?! First you ran off and nearly got yourself killed by an Alpha Beowolf, and then, during what  _ should _ have been a trivial fight with those Beowolves while Oscar was dealing with their Alpha, you attacked out-of-turn and, thanks to your failure to put even the  _ smallest _ amount of caution in the placement of your strikes, made me set the forest on fire!" Weiss snapped at Ruby. 

"Wha-what's that supposed to mean?!" Ruby said defensively, hurt in her voice as she spoke.

"Oh, that means nothing, but quite frankly, I'm honestly surprised that someone who  _ talks so much _ would  _ communicate so little _ during an encounter!" snapped Weiss.

"Well, I'm sorry that you need my help to win a fight!" Ruby said, hurt increasingly evident in her voice as she started to get more than a little angry. "I'm just fine on my own!"

"Well, congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak your way in Beaco-" Weiss said before she suddenly found  _ The Long Memory _ pointing in her direction.

"I'm going to stop you  _ right there _ , Miss Schnee," Oscar said, deadly seriousness in his voice as he spoke. "I get that you feel that Ruby shouldn't be at Beacon because she's only fifteen, and by all rights, neither she nor myself should be at Beacon for at least another two years. However, after she and I got into a fight with Roman Torchwick, his hired men, and Cinde-er, his unknown accomplice, Professor Ozpin  _ himself _ came to meet us and personally invited us to Beacon two years ahead of schedule. You know who Ozpin is, right? Headmaster of Beacon, just launched us off a cliff a few hours ago?"

Weiss began to stammer. "W-well, yeah, of course I know who-" she tried to say.

"Good. Now then, since the three of us are going to be on a team whether any of us like it or not, do me and Ruby a favor, accept that Ruby and I got into Beacon two years early of our own merit, stop berating Ruby about it, and help me figure out which way 'north' is from here," said Oscar.

Weiss and Ruby could only stare wide-eyed at the verbal thrashing Oscar had just unleashed upon the heiress, who nodded curtly before she and Oscar began to check her bearings. Ruby, meanwhile, stared at Oscar. 

The way the Oscar tended to act around her, standing up to Weiss for her, helping her out in the courtyard the other day, teaming up with her against that Torchwick guy and his thugs… it was almost exactly like how she'd imagined the relationship between the Girl In The Tower and the warrior who had rescued her to have been like after the story ended. Although, she certainly didn't want Oscar standing up for her, helping her, and protecting her all the time, not if he expected her to be able to hold her own alongside him and Weiss on the same team. Ruby wanted to be able to protect the people of Remnant, and she couldn't do that if someone was standing up to her enemies on her behalf and protecting her all the time.

_ Although, _ thought Ruby as the unfamiliar and strange feeling she had experienced back when she had become lost within Oscar's eyes resurfaced again, completely unbidden.  _ I certainly wouldn't mind doing the same for him… of course it DOES help that he's so cute with those dreamy eyes of his… gah! What am I thinking?! _ the red reaper thought as she turned the same shade of crimson as her cloak, pulling the hood up to hide her face, and by extension, her embarrassing blush.

"Hey, Ruby! You coming?" Oscar called from a short distance ahead of Ruby.

Ruby lowered her hood again before she called "Yeah! I'm on my way!" and ran to catch up with Oscar and Weiss, a faint blush still on her face from her thoughts about the green-clad boy.

Unbeknownst to the trio of warriors, however, as they set out towards what they hoped was the direction the ruins were in, a feather black as night and sharper than a butcher knife floated gently down from the skies above them...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BOOMSHAKALAKA! She is d-o-n-e! All right, if you guys liked what you saw here, then be sure to kudos, bookmark, and comment, and I'll see you guys next time for the birth of Team RWBYS and Team JNPR!


End file.
